a tale of two cities(雙城記)

ELECBOOK CLASSICS
A TALE
OF TWO
CITIES
Charles Dickens
ELECBOOK CLASSICS
ebc0014. Charles Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities
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A TALE OF TWO
CITIES
Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
CONTENTS
(Click on number to go to chapter)
BOOK THE FIRST: RECALLED TO LIFE
Chapter I. THE PERIOD.....................................................................8
Chapter II. THE MAIL.......................................................................12
Chapter III. THE NIGHT SHADOWS ............................................20
Chapter IV. THE PREPARATION ..................................................26
Chapter V. THE WINE SHOP ..........................................................41
Chapter VI. THE SHOEMAKER......................................................56
BOOK THE SECOND: THE GOLDEN THREAD
Chapter VII. FIVE YEARS LATER.................................................71
Chapter VIII. A SIGHT......................................................................79
Chapter IX. A DISSAPOINTMENT................................................88
Chapter X. CONGRATULATORY .................................................106
Chapter XI. THE JACKAL..............................................................115
Chapter XII. HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE......................................123
Chapter XIII. MONSEIGNEUR IN TOWN..................................139
Chapter XIV. MONSEIGNEUR IN THE COUNTRY.................151
Chapter XV. THE GORGON』S HEAD...........................................158
Chapter XVI. TWO PROMISES.....................................................173
Chapter XVII. A COMPANION PICTURE ..................................184
Chapter XVIII. THE FELLOW OF DELICACY..........................189
Chapter XIX. THE FELLOW OF NO DELICACY......................198
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A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XX. THE HONEST TRADESMAN................................204
Chapter XXI. KNITTING................................................................218
Chapter XXII. STILL KNITTING.................................................233
Chapter XXIII. ONE NIGHT .........................................................247
Chapter XXIV. NINE DAYS...........................................................254
Chapter XXV. AN OPINION ..........................................................263
Chapter XXVI. A PLEA...................................................................273
Chapter XXVII. ECHOING FOOTSTEPS...................................278
Chapter XXVIII. THE SEA STILL RISES..................................293
Chapter XXIX. FIRE RISES..........................................................300
Chapter XXX. DRAWN TO THE LOADSTONE ROCK............310
BOOK THE THIRD: THE TRACK OF A STORM
Chapter XXXI. IN SECRET...........................................................326
Chapter XXXII. THE GRINDSTONE..........................................341
Chapter XXXIII. THE SHADOW..................................................350
Chapter XXXIV. CALM IN STORM.............................................357
Chapter XXXV. THE WOOD-SAWYER.......................................364
Chapter XXXVI. TRIUMPH...........................................................372
Chapter XXXVII. A KNOCK AT THE DOOR.............................381
Chapter XXXVIII. A HAND AT CARDS .....................................388
Chapter XXXIX. THE GAME MADE...........................................405
Chapter XL. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE SHADOW ................421
Chapter XLI. DUSK.........................................................................440
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Chapter XLII. DARKNESS ............................................................445
Chapter XLIII. FIFTY-TWO ..........................................................456
Chapter XLIV. THE KNITTING DONE.......................................472
Chapter XLV. THE FOOTSTEPS DIE OUT FOR EVER..........488
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
A Tale of Two Cities
BOOK THE FIRST
RECALLED TO
LIFE
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter I
THE PERIOD
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age
of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of
Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it
was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all
going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the
present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of
comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain
face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw
and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both
countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State
preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled
for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at
that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently
attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a
prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime
appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the
swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane
ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out
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its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past
(supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere
messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the
English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in
America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to
the human race than any communications yet received through
any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.
France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than
her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding
smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it.
Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained
herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a
youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers,
and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in
the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed
within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely
enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there
were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already
marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into
boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a
knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough
outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris,
there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts,
bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in
by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be
his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that
Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one
heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather,
forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was
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A Tale of Two Cities
to be atheistical and traitorous.
In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and
protection to justify much national boasting. Daring burglaries by
armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself
every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town
without removing their furniture to upholsterers』 warehouses for
security; the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the
light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-
tradesman whom he stopped in his character of 「the Captain,」
gallantly shot him through the head and rode away; the mail was
waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then
got shot dead himself by the other four, 「in consequence of the
failure of his ammunition」: after which the mail was robbed in
peace; that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was
made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one
highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all
his retinue; prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their
turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among
them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball; thieves snipped off
diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-
rooms; musketeers went into St. Giles』s, to search for contraband
goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers
fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences
much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the hangman,
ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant
requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous
criminals; now, hanging a housebreaker on Saturday who had
been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand at
Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of
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Westminster Hall; today, taking the life of an atrocious murderer,
and tomorrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer』s
boy of sixpence.
All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and
close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and
seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the
Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those
other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and
carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct there
Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures—the creatures of this
chronicle among the rest—along the roads that lay before them.
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A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter II
THE MAIL
It was the Dover road that lay, on a Friday night late in
November, before the first of the persons with whom this
history has business. The Dover road lay, as to him, beyond
the Dover mail, as it lumbered up Shooter』s Hill. He walked uphill
in the mire by the side of the mail, as the rest of the passengers
did; not because they had the least relish for walking exercise,
under the circumstances, but because the hill, and the harness,
and the mud, and the mail, were all so heavy, that the horses had
three times already come to a stop, besides once drawing the
coach across the road, with the mutinous intent of taking it back to
Blackheath. Reins and whip and coachman and guard, however,
in combination, had read that article of war which forbade a
purpose otherwise strongly in favour of the argument, that some
brute animals are endued with Reason; and the team had
capitulated and returned to their duty.
With drooping heads and tremulous tails, they mashed their
way through the thick mud, floundering and stumbling between
whiles, as if they were falling to pieces at the larger joints. As often
as the driver rested them and brought them to a stand, with a
wary 「Wo-ho! so-ho then!」 the near leader violently shook his
head and everything upon it—like an unusually emphatic horse,
denying that the coach could be got up the hill. Whenever the
leader made this rattle, the passenger started, as a nervous
passenger might, and was disturbed in mind.
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There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed
in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and
finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow
way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread
one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was
dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-
lamps but these its own workings and a few yards of road; and the
reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it
all.
Two other passengers, besides the one, were plodding up the
hill by the side of the mail. All three were wrapped to the cheekbones and over the ears, and wore jack-boots. Not one of the three
could have said, from anything he saw, what either of the other
two was like; and each was hidden under almost as many
wrappers from the eyes of the mind, as from the eyes of the body,
of his two companions. In those days, travellers were very shy of
being confidential on a short notice, for anybody on the road
might be a robber or in league with robbers. As to the latter, when
every posting-house and ale-house could produce somebody in
「the Captain』s」 pay, ranging from the landlord to the lowest stable
nondescript, it was the likeliest thing upon the cards. So the guard
of the Dover mail thought to himself, that Friday night in
November, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five,
lumbering up Shooter』s Hill, as he stood on his own particular
perch behind the mail, beating his feet, and keeping an eye and a
hand on the arm-chest before him, where a loaded blunderbuss
lay at the top of six or eight loaded horse-pistols, deposited on a
substratum of cutlass.
The Dover mail was in its usual genial position that the guard
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suspected the passengers, the passengers suspected one another
and the guard, they all suspected everybody else, and the
coachman was sure of nothing but the horses; as to which cattle he
could with a clear conscience have taken his oath on the two
Testaments that they were not fit for the journey.
「Wo-ho!」 said the coachman. 「So, then! One more pull and
you』re at the top and be damned to you, for I have had trouble
enough to get you to it!—Joe!」
「Halloa!」 the guard replied.
「What o』clock do you make it, Joe?」
「Ten minutes, good, past eleven.」
「My blood!」 ejaculated the vexed coachman, 「and not atop of
Shooter』s yet! Tst! Yah! Get on with you!」
The emphatic horse, cut short by the whip in a most decided
negative, made a decided scramble for it, and the three other
horses followed suit. Once more, the Dover mail struggled on, with
the jack-boots of its passengers squashing along by its side. They
had stopped when the coach stopped, and they kept close
company with it. If any one of the three had had the hardihood to
propose to another to walk on a little ahead into the mist and
darkness, he would have put himself in a fair way of getting shot
instantly as a highwayman.
The last burst carried the mail to the summit of the hill. The
horses stopped to breathe again, and the guard got down to skid
the wheel for the descent, and open the coach-door to let the
passengers in.
「Tst! Joe!」 cried the coachman in a warning voice, looking
down from his box.
「What do you say, Tom?」
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
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They both listened.
「I say a horse at a canter coming up, Joe.」
「I say a horse at a gallop, Tom,」 returned the guard, leaving his
hold of the door, and mounting nimbly to his place. 「Gentlemen!
In the King』s name, all of you!」
With this hurried adjuration, he cocked his blunderbuss, and
stood on the offensive.
The passenger booked by this history, was on the coachstep,
getting in; the other two passengers were close behind him, and
about to follow. He remained on the step, half in the coach and
half out of it; they remained in the road below him. They all looked
from the coachman to the guard, and from the guard to the
coachman, and listened. The coachman looked back and the guard
looked back, and even the emphatic leader pricked up his ears and
looked back, without contradicting.
The stillness consequent on the cessation of the rumbling and
labouring of the coach, added to the stillness of the night, made it
very quiet indeed. The panting of the horses communicated a
tremulous motion to the coach, as if it were in a state of agitation.
The hearts of the passengers beat loud enough perhaps to be
heard; but at any rate, the quiet pause was audibly expressive of
people out of breath, and holding the breath, and having the
pulses quickened by expectation.
The sound of a horse at a gallop came fast and furiously up the
hill.
「So-ho!」 the guard sang out, as loud as he could roar. 「Yo
there! Stand! I shall fire!」
The pace was suddenly checked, and, with much splashing and
floundering, a man』s voice called from the mist, 「Is that the Dover
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A Tale of Two Cities
mail?」
「Never you mind what it is,」 the guard retorted. 「What are
you?」
「Is that the Dover mail?」
「Why do you want to know?」
「I want a passenger, if it is.」
「What passenger?」
「Mr. Jarvis Lorry.」
Our booked passenger showed in a moment that it was his
name. The guard, the coachman, and the two other passengers
eyed him distrustfully.
「Keep where you are,」 the guard called to the voice in the mist,
「because, if I should make a mistake, it could never be set right in
your lifetime. Gentleman of the name of Lorry answer straight.」
「What is the matter?」 asked the passenger, then, with mildly
quavering speech. 「Who wants me? Is it Jerry?」
(「I don』t like Jerry』s voice, if it is Jerry,」 growled the guard to
himself. 「He』s hoarser than suits me, is Jerry.」)
「Yes, Mr. Lorry.」
「What is the matter?」
「A despatch sent after you from over yonder. T. and Co.」
「I know this messenger, guard,」 said Mr. Lorry, getting down
into the road, assisted from behind more swiftly than politely by
the other two passengers, who immediately scrambled into the
coach, shut the door, and pulled up the window. 「He may come
close; there』s nothing wrong.」
「I hope there ain』t, but can』t make so 』Nation sure of that,」 said
the guard, in gruff soliloquy. 「Hallo you!」
「Well! And hallo you!」 said Jerry, more hoarsely than before.
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「Come on at a footpace! d』ye mind me? And if you』ve got
holsters to that saddle o』 yourn, don』t let me see your hands go
nigh 』em. For I』m a devil at a quick mistake, and when I make one
it takes the form of Lead. So now let』s look at you.」
The figures of a horse and rider came slowly through the
eddying mist, and came to the side of the mail, where the
passenger stood. The rider stopped, and, casting up his eyes at the
guard, handed the passenger a small folded paper. The rider』s
horse was blown, and both horse and rider were covered with
mud, from the hoofs of the horse to the hat of the man.
「Guard!」 said the passenger, in a tone of quiet business
confidence.
The watchful guard, with his right hand at the stock of his
raised blunderbuss, his left at the barrel, and his eye on the
horseman, answered curtly, 「Sir.」
「There is nothing to apprehend. I belong to Tellson』s Bank.
You must know Tellson』s Bank in London. I am going to Paris on
business. A crown to drink. I may read this?」
「If so be as you』re quick, sir.」
He opened it in the light of the coach-lamp on that side, and
read—first to himself and then aloud: 「『Wait at Dover for
Mam』selle.』 It』s not long, you see, guard. Jerry, say that my answer
was, RECALLED TO LIFE.」
Jerry started in his saddle. 「That』s a Blazing strange answer,
too,」 said he, at his hoarsest.
「Take that message back, and they will know that I received
this, as well as if I wrote. Make the best of your way. Good night.」
With those words the passenger opened the coach-door and got
in; not at all assisted by his fellow-passengers, who had
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A Tale of Two Cities
expeditiously secreted their watches and purses in their boots, and
were now making a general pretence of being asleep. With no
more definite purpose than to escape the hazard of originating any
other kind of action.
The coach lumbered on again, with heavier wreaths of mist
closing round it as it began the descent. The guard soon replaced
his blunderbuss in his arm-chest, and, having looked to the rest of
its contents, and having looked to the supplementary pistols that
he wore in his belt, looked to a smaller chest beneath his seat, in
which there were a few smith』s tools, a couple of torches, and a
tinderbox. For he was furnished with that completeness that if the
coach-lamps had been blown and stormed out, which did
occasionally happen, he had only to shut himself up inside, keep
the flint and steel sparks well off the straw, and get a light with
tolerable safety and ease (if he were lucky) in five minutes.
「Tom!」 softly over the coach-roof.
「Hallo, Joe.」
「Did you hear the message?」
「I did, Joe.」
「What did you make of it, Tom?」
「Nothing at all, Joe.」
「That』s a coincidence, too,」 the guard mused, 「for I made the
same of it myself.」
Jerry, left alone in the mist and darkness, dismounted
meanwhile, not only to ease his spent horse, but to wipe the mud
from his face, and shake the wet out of his hat-brim, which might
be capable of holding about half a gallon. After standing with the
bridle over his heavily-splashed arm, until the wheels of the mail
were no longer within hearing and the night was quite still again,
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he turned to walk down the hill.
「After that there gallop from Temple Bar, old lady, I won』t trust
your forelegs till I get you on the level,」 said this hoarse
messenger, glancing at his mare. 「『Recalled to life.』 That』s a
Blazing strange message. Much of that wouldn』t do for you, Jerry!
I say, Jerry! You』d be in a Blazing bad way, if recalling to life was
to come into fashion, Jerry!」
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
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Chapter III
THE NIGHT SHADOWS
Awonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature
is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to
every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great
city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses
encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them
encloses its own secret; that every breathing heart in the hundreds
of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret
to the heart nearest it! Something of the awfulness, even of Death
itself, is referable to this. No more can I turn the leaves of this dear
book that I loved, and vainly hope in time to read it all. No more
can I look into the depths of this unfathomable water, wherein, as
momentary lights glanced into it, I have had glimpses of buried
treasure and other things submerged. It was appointed that the
book should shut with a spring, for ever and for ever, when I had
read but a page. It was appointed that the water should be locked
in an eternal frost, when the light was playing on its surface, and I
stood in ignorance on the shore. My friend is dead, my neighbour
is dead, my love, the darling of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable
consolidation and perpetuation of the secret that was always in
that individuality, and which I shall carry in mind to my life』s end.
In any of the burial-places of this city through which I pass, is
there a sleeper more inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, in
their innermost personality, to me, or than I am to them?
As to this, his natural and not to be alienated inheritance, the
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messenger on horseback had exactly the same possessions as the
King, the first Minister of State, or the richest merchant in
London. So with the three passengers shut up in the narrow
compass of one lumbering old mail-coach; they were mysteries to
one another, as complete as if each had been in his own coach and
six, or his own coach and sixty, with the breadth of a county
between him and the next.
The messenger rode back at an easy trot, stopping pretty often
at ale-houses by the way to drink, but evincing a tendency to keep
his own counsel, and to keep his hat cocked over his eyes. He had
eyes that assorted very well with that decoration, being of a
surface black, with no depth in the colour or form, and much too
near together—as if they were afraid of being found out in
something, singly, if they kept too far apart. They had a sinister
expression, under an old cocked-hat like a three-cornered
spittoon, and over a great muffler for the chin and throat, which
descended nearly to the wearer』s knees. When he stopped for
drink, he moved this muffler with his left hand, only while he
poured his liquor in with his right; as soon as that was done, he
muffled again.
「No, Jerry, no!」 said the messenger, harping on one theme as
he rode. 「It wouldn』t do for you, Jerry. Jerry, you honest
tradesman, it wouldn』t suit your line of business! Recalled—! Bust
me if I don』t think he』d been a drinking!」
His message perplexed his mind to that degree that he was fain,
several times, to take off his hat to scratch his head. Except on the
crown, which was raggedly bald, he had stiff, black hair, standing
jaggedly all over it, and growing down hill almost to his broad,
blunt nose. It was so like smith』s work, so much more like the top
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of a strongly spiked wall than a head of hair, that the best of
players at leap-frog might have declined him, as the most
dangerous man in the world to go over.
While he trotted back with the message he was to deliver to the
night watchman in his box at the door of Tellson』s Bank, by
Temple Bar, who was to deliver it to greater authorities within, the
shadows of the night took such shapes to him as arose out of the
message, and took such shapes to the mare as arose out of her
private topics of uneasiness. They seemed to be numerous, for she
shied at every shadow on the road.
What time, the mail-coach lumbered, jolted, rattled, and
bumped upon its tedious way, with its three fellow-inscrutables
inside. To whom, likewise, the shadows of the night revealed
themselves, in the forms their dozing eyes and wandering
thoughts suggested.
Tellson』s Bank had a run upon it in the mail. As the bank
passenger—with an arm drawn through the leathern strap, which
did what lay in it to keep him from pounding against the next
passenger, and driving him into his corner, whenever the coach
got a special jolt—nodded in his place, with half-shut eyes, the
little coach-windows, and the coach-lamp dimly gleaming through
them, and the bulky bundle of opposite passenger, became the
bank, and did a great stroke of business. The rattle of the harness
was the chink of money, and more drafts were honoured in five
minutes than even Tellson』s, with all its foreign and home
connexion, ever paid in thrice the time. Then the strong-rooms
underground, at Tellson』s, with such of their valuable stores and
secrets as were known to the passenger (and it was not a little that
he knew about them), opened before him, and he went in among
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them with the great keys and the feebly-burning candle, and found
them safe, and strong, and sound, and still, just as he had last seen
them.
But, though the bank was almost always with him, and though
the coach (in a confused way, like the presence of pain under an
opiate) was always with him, there was another current of
impression that never ceased to run, all through the night. He was
on his way to dig some one out of a grave.
Now, which of the multitude of faces that showed themselves
before him was the true face of the buried person, the shadows of
the night did not indicate; but they were all the faces of a man of
five-and-forty by years, and they differed principally in the
passions they expressed, and in the ghastliness of their worn and
wasted state. Pride, contempt, defiance, stubbornness,
submission, lamentation, succeeded one another; so did varieties
of sunken cheek, cadaverous colour, emaciated hands and figures.
But the face was in the main one face, and every head was
prematurely white. A hundred times the dozing passenger
inquired of this spectre:
「Buried how long?」
The answer was always the same: 「Almost eighteen years.」
「You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?」
「Long ago.」
「You know that you are recalled to life?」
「They tell me so.」
「I hope you care to live?」
「I can』t say.」
「Shall I show her to you? Will you come and see her?」
The answers to this question were various and contradictory.
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Sometimes the broken reply was. 「Wait! It would kill me if I saw
her too soon.」 Sometimes, it was given in a tender rain of tears,
and then it was, 「Take me to her.」 Sometimes it was staring and
bewildered, and then it was, 「I don』t know her. I don』t
understand.」
After such imaginary discourse, the passenger in his fancy
would dig, and dig, dig—now, with a spade, now with a great key,
now with his hands—to dig this wretched creature out. Got out at
last, with earth hanging about his face and hair, he would
suddenly fall away to dust. The passenger would then start to
himself, and lower the window, to get the reality of mist and rain
on his cheek.
Yet even when his eyes were opened on the mist and rain, on
the moving patch of light from the lamps, and the hedge at the
roadside retreating by jerks, the night shadows outside the coach
would fall into the train of the night shadows within. The real
Banking-house by Temple Bar, the real business of the past day,
the real strong rooms, the real express sent after him, and the real
message returned, would all be there. Out of the midst of them,
the ghostly face would rise, and he would accost it again.
「Buried how long?」
「Almost eighteen years.」
「I hope you care to live?」
「I can』t say.」
Dig—dig—dig—until an impatient movement from one of the
two passengers would admonish him to pull up the window, draw
his arm securely through the leathern strap, and speculate upon
the two slumbering forms, until his mind lost its hold of them, and
they again slid away into the bank and the grave.
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「Buried how long?」
「Almost eighteen years.」
「You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?」
「Long ago.」
The words were still in his hearing as just spoken—distinctly in
his hearing as ever spoken words had been in his life—when the
weary passenger started to the consciousness of daylight, and
found that the shadows of the night were gone.
He lowered the window, and looked out at the rising sun. There
was a ridge of ploughed land, with a plough upon it where it had
been left last night when the horses were unyoked; beyond, a quiet
coppice-wood, in which many leaves of burning red and golden
yellow still remained upon the trees. Though the earth was cold
and wet, the sky was clear, and the sun rose bright, placid, and
beautiful.
「Eighteen years!」 said the passenger, looking at the sun.
「Gracious Creator of day! To be buried alive for eighteen years!」
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Chapter IV
THE PREPARATION
W hen the mail got successfully to Dover, in the course of
the forenoon, the head drawer at the Royal George
Hotel opened the coach-door as his custom was. He did
it with some flourish of ceremony, for a mail journey from London
in winter was an achievement to congratulate an adventurous
traveller upon.
By that time, there was only one adventurous traveller left to be
congratulated: for the two others had been set down at their
respective roadside destinations. The mildewy inside of the coach,
with its damp and dirty straw, its disagreeable smell, and its
obscurity, was rather like a larger dog-kennel. Mr. Lorry, the
passenger, shaking himself out of it in chains of straw, a tangle of
shaggy wrapper, flapping hat, and muddy legs, was rather like a
larger sort of dog.
「There will be a packet to Calais, tomorrow, drawer?」
「Yes, sir, if the weather holds and the wind sets tolerable fair.
The tide will serve pretty nicely at about two in the afternoon, sir.
Bed, sir?」
「I shall not go to bed till night; but I want a bedroom, and a
barber.」
「And then breakfast, sir? Yes, sir, That way, sir, if you please.
Show Concord! Gentleman』s valise and hot water to Concord. Pull
off gentleman』s boots in Concord. (You will find a fine sea-coal fire,
sir.) Fetch barber to Concord. Stir about there, now, for Concord!」
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The Concord bed-chamber being always assigned to a
passenger by the mail, and passengers by the mail being always
heavily wrapped up from head to foot, the room had the odd
interest for the establishment of the Royal George, that although
but one kind of man was seen to go into it, all kinds and varieties
of men came out of it. Consequently, another drawer, and two
porters, and several maids and the landlady, were all loitering by
accident at various points of the road between the Concord and
the coffee-room, when a gentleman of sixty, formally dressed in a
brown suit of clothes, pretty well worn, but very well kept, with
large square cuffs and large flaps to the pockets, passed along on
his way to his breakfast.
The coffee-room had no other occupant, that forenoon, than the
gentleman in brown. His breakfast-table was drawn before the
fire, and as he sat, with its light shining on him, waiting for the
meal, he sat so still, that he might have been sitting for his portrait.
Very orderly and methodical he looked, with a hand on each
knee, and a loud watch ticking a sonorous sermon under his
flapped waistcoat, as though it pitted its gravity and longevity
against the levity and evanescence of the brisk fire. He had a good
leg, and was a little vain of it, for his brown stockings fitted sleek
and close, and were of a fine texture; his shoes and buckles, too,
though plain, were trim. He wore an odd little sleek crisp flaxen
wig, setting very close to his head: which wig, it is to be presumed,
was made of hair, but which looked far more as though it were
spun from filaments of silk or glass. His linen, though not of a
fineness in accordance with his stockings, was as white as the tops
of the waves that broke upon the neighbouring beach, or the
specks of sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea. A face
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habitually suppressed and quieted, was still lighted up under the
quaint wig by a pair of moist bright eyes that it must have cost
their owner, in years gone by, some pains to drill to the composed
and reserved expression of Tellson』s Bank. He had a healthy
colour in his cheeks, and his face, though lined, bore few traces of
anxiety. But, perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson』s
Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people;
and perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come
easily off and on, Completing his resemblance to a man who was
sitting for his portrait, Mr. Lorry dropped off to sleep. The arrival
of his breakfast roused him, and he said to the drawer, as he
moved his chair to it:
「I wish accommodation prepared for a young lady who may
come here at any time today. She may ask for Mr. Jarvis Lorry, or
she may only ask for a gentleman from Tellson』s Bank. Please to
let me know.」
「Yes, sir. Tellson』s Bank in London, sir?」
「Yes.」
「Yes, sir. We have oftentimes the honour to entertain your
gentlemen in their travelling backwards and forwards betwixt
London and Paris, sir. A vast deal of travelling, sir, in Tellson and
Company』s House.」
「Yes. We are quite a French House, as well as an English one.」
「Yes, sir. Not much in the habit of such travelling yourself, I
think, sir?」
「Not of late years. It is fifteen years since we—since I—came
last from France.」
「Indeed, sir? That was before my time here, sir. Before our
people』s time here, sir. The George was in other hands at that
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time, sir.」
「I believe so.」
「But I would hold a pretty wager, sir, that a House like Tellson
and Company was flourishing, a matter of fifty, not to speak of
fifteen years ago?」
「You might treble that, and say a hundred and fifty, yet not be
far from the truth.」
「Indeed, sir!」
Rounding his mouth and both his eyes, as he stepped backward
from the table, the waiter shifted his napkin from his right arm to
his left, dropping into a comfortable attitude, and stood surveying
the guest while he ate and drank, as from an observatory or watchtower. According to the immemorial usage of waiters in all ages.
When Mr. Lorry had finished his breakfast, he went out for a
stroll on the beach. The little narrow, crooked town of Dover hid
itself away from the beach, and ran its head into the chalk cliffs,
like a marine ostrich. The beach was a desert of heaps of sea and
stones tumbling wildly about, and the sea did what it liked, and
what it liked was destruction. It thundered at the town, and
thundered at the cliffs, and brought the coast down, madly. The
air among the houses was of so strong a piscatory flavour that one
might have supposed sick fish went up to be dipped in it, as sick
people went down to be dipped into the sea. A little fishing was
done in the port, and a quantity of strolling about by night, and
looking seaward: particularly at those times when the tide made,
and was near flood. Small tradesmen, who did no business
whatever, sometimes unaccountably realised large fortunes, and it
was remarkable that nobody in the neighbourhood could endure a
lamplighter.
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As the day declined into the afternoon, and the air, which had
been at intervals clear enough to allow the French coast to be
seen, became again charged with mist and vapour, Mr. Lorry』s
thoughts seemed to cloud too. When it was dark, and he sat before
the coffee-room fire, awaiting his dinner as he had awaited his
breakfast, his mind was busily digging, digging, digging, in the live
red coals.
A bottle of good claret after dinner does a digger in the red
coals no harm, otherwise than as it has a tendency to throw him
out of work. Mr. Lorry had been idle a long time, and had just
poured out his last glassful of wine with as complete an
appearance of satisfaction as is ever to be found in an elderly
gentleman of a fresh complexion who has got to the end of a bottle,
when a rattling of wheels came up the narrow street, and rumbled
into the inn-yard.
He set down his glass untouched. 「This is Mam』selle!」 he said.
In a very few minutes the waiter came in to announce that Miss
Manette had arrived from London, and would be happy to see the
gentleman from Tellson』s.
「So soon?」
Miss Manette had taken some refreshment on the road, and
required none then, and was extremely anxious to see the
gentleman from Tellson』s immediately, if it suited his pleasure and
convenience.
The gentleman from Tellson』s had nothing left for it but to
empty his glass with an air of stolid desperation, settle his odd
little flaxen wig at the ears, and follow the waiter to Miss Manette』s
apartment. It was a large, dark room, furnished in a funereal
manner with black horsehair, and loaded with heavy dark tables.
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These had been oiled and oiled, until the two tall candles on the
table in the middle of the room were gloomily reflected on every
leaf; as if they were buried, in deep graves of black mahogany, and
no light to speak of could be expected from them until they were
dug out.
The obscurity was so difficult to penetrate that Mr. Lorry,
picking his way over the well-worn Turkey carpet, supposed Miss
Manette to be, for the moment, in some adjacent room, until,
having got past the two tall candles, he saw standing to receive
him by the table between them and the fire, a young lady of not
more than seventeen, in a riding-cloak, and still holding her straw
travelling-hat by its ribbon in her hand. As his eyes rested on a
short, slight, pretty figure, a quantity of golden hair, a pair of blue
eyes that met his own with an inquiring look, and a forehead with
a singular capacity (remembering how young and smooth it was),
of lifting and knitting itself into an expression that was not quite
one of perplexity, or wonder, or alarm, or merely of a bright fixed
attention, though it included all the four expressions—as his eyes
rested on these things, a sudden vivid likeness passed before him,
of a child whom he had held in his arms on the passage across that
very Channel, one cold time, when the hail drifted heavily and the
sea ran high. The likeness passed away, like a breath along the
surface of the gaunt pier-glass behind her, on the frame of which,
a hospital procession of Negro cupids, several headless and all
cripples, were offering black baskets of Dead Sea fruit to black
divinities of the feminine gender—and he made his formal bow to
Miss Manette.
「Pray take a seat, sir.」 In a very clear and pleasant young voice;
a little foreign in its accent, but a very little indeed.
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「I kiss your hand, miss,」 said Mr. Lorry, with the manners of an
earlier date, as he made his formal bow again, and took his seat.
「I received a letter from the Bank, sir, yesterday, informing me
that some intelligence—or discovery—」
「The word is not material, miss; either word will do.」
「—respecting the small property of my poor father, whom I
never saw—so long dead—」 Mr. Lorry moved in his chair, and
cast a troubled look towards the hospital procession of Negro
cupids. As if they had any help for anybody in their absurd
baskets!
「—rendered it necessary that I should go to Paris, there to
communicate with a gentleman of the Bank, so good as to be
despatched to Paris for the purpose.」
「Myself.」
「As I was prepared to hear, sir.」
She curtseyed to him (young ladies made curtseys in those
days), with a pretty desire to convey to him that she felt how much
older and wiser he was than she. He made her another bow.
「I replied to the Bank, sir, that as it was considered necessary,
by those who knew, and who are so kind as to advise me, that I
should go to France, and that as I am an orphan and have no
friend who could go with me, I should esteem it highly if I might
be permitted to place myself, during the journey, under that
worthy gentleman』s protection. The gentleman had left London,
but I think a messenger was sent after him to beg the favour of his
waiting for me here.」
「I was happy,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「to be entrusted with the charge.
I shall be more happy to execute it.」
「Sir, I thank you indeed. I thank you very gratefully. It was told
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me by the Bank that the gentleman would explain to me the
details of the business, and that I must prepare myself to find
them of a surprising nature. I have done my best to prepare
myself, and I naturally have a strong and eager interest to know
what they are.」
「Naturally,」 said Mr. Lorry. 「Yes—I—」 After a pause, he
added, again settling the crisp flaxen wig at the ears.
「It is very difficult to begin.」
He did not begin, but, in his indecision, met her glance. The
young forehead lifted itself into that singular expression—but it
was pretty and characteristic, besides being singular—and she
raised her hand, as if with an involuntary action she caught at, or
stayed some passing shadow.
「Are you quite a stranger to me, sir?」
「Am I not?」 Mr. Lorry opened his hands, and extended them
outwards with an argumentative smile.
Between the eyebrows and just over the little feminine nose,
the line of which was as delicate and fine as it was possible to be,
the expression deepened itself as she took her seat thoughtfully in
the chair by which she had hitherto remained standing. He
watched her as she mused, and the moment she raised her eyes
again, went on:
「In your adopted country, I presume, I cannot do better than
address you as a young English lady, Miss Manette?」
「If you please, sir.」
「Miss Manette, I am a man of business. I have a business
charge to acquit myself of. In your reception of it, don』t heed me
any more than if I was a speaking machine—truly, I am not much
else. I will, with your leave, relate to you, miss, the story of one of
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our customers.」
「Story!」
He seemed wilfully to mistake the word she had repeated, when
he added, in a hurry, 「Yes, customers; in the banking business we
usually call our connexion our customers. He was a French
gentleman; a scientific gentleman; a man of great acquirements—a
Doctor.」
「Not of Beauvais?」
「Why, yes, of Beauvais. Like Monsieur Manette, your father,
the gentleman was of Beauvais. Like Monsieur Manette, your
father, the gentleman was of repute in Paris. I had the honour of
knowing him there. Our relations were business relations, but
confidential. I was at that time in our French House, and had
been—oh! twenty years.」
「At that time—I may ask, at what time, sir?」
「I speak, miss, of twenty years ago. He married—an English
lady—and I was one of the trustees. His affairs, like the affairs of
many other French gentlemen and French families, were entirely
in Tellson』s hands. In a similar way I am, or I have been, trustee of
one kind or other for scores of our customers. These are mere
business relations, miss; there is no friendship in them, no
particular interest, nothing like sentiment. I have passed from one
to another, in the course of my business life, just as I pass from
one of our customers to another in the course of my business day;
in short, I have no feelings; I am a mere machine. To go on—」
「But this is my father』s story, sir; and I begin to think」—the
curiously roughened forehead was very intent upon him—「that
when I was left an orphan through my mother』s surviving my
father only two years, it was you who brought me to England. I am
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almost sure it was you.」
Mr. Lorry took the hesitating little hand that confidingly
advanced to take his, and he put it with some ceremony to his lips.
He then conducted the young lady straightway to her chair again,
and, holding the chair-back with his left hand, and using his right
hand by turns to rub his chin, pull his wig at the ears, or point
what he said, stood looking down into her face while she sat
looking up into his.
「Miss Manette, it was I. And you will see how truly I spoke of
myself just now, in saying I had no feelings, and that all the
relations I hold with my fellow-creatures are mere business
relations, when you reflect that I have never seen you since. No;
you have been the ward of Tellson』s House since, and I have been
busy with the other business of Tellson』s House since. Feelings! I
have no time for them, no chance of them. I pass my whole life,
miss, in turning an immense pecuniary Mangle.」
After this odd description of his daily routine of employment,
Mr. Lorry flattened his flaxen wig upon his head with both hands
(which was most unnecessary, for nothing could be flatter than its
shining surface was before), and resumed his former attitude.
「So far, miss (as you have remarked), this is the story of your
regretted father. Now comes the difference. If your father had not
died when he did—Don』t be frightened! How you start!」
She did, indeed, start. And she caught his wrist with both her
hands.
「Pray,」 said Mr. Lorry, in a soothing tone, bringing his left
hand from the back of the chair to lay it on the supplicatory
fingers that clasped him in so violent a tremble: 「pray control your
agitation—a matter of business. As I was saying—」 Her look so
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discomposed him that he stopped, wandered, and began anew:
「As I was saying: if Monsieur Manette had not died; if he had
suddenly and silently disappeared; if he had been spirited away; if
it had not been difficult to guess to what dreadful place, though no
art could trace him; if he had an enemy in some compatriot who
could exercise a privilege that I in my own time have known the
boldest people afraid to speak of in a whisper, across the water
there; for instance, the privilege of filling up blank forms of the
consignment of any one to the oblivion of a prison for any length of
time; if his wife had implored the king, the queen, the court, the
clergy, for any tidings of him, and all quite in vain;—then the
history of your father would have been the history of this
unfortunate gentleman, the Doctor of Beauvais.」
「I entreat you to tell me more, sir.」
「I will. I am going to. You can bear it?」
「I can bear anything but the uncertainty you leave me in at this
moment.」
「You speak collectedly, and you—are collected. That』s good!」
(Though his manner was less satisfied than his words.) 「A matter
of business. Regard it as a matter of business—business that must
be done. Now if this doctor』s wife, though a lady of great courage
and spirit, had suffered so intensely from this cause before her
little child was born—」
「The little child was a daughter, sir.」
「A daughter. A—a—matter of business—don』t be distressed.
Miss, if the poor lady had suffered so intensely before her little
child was born, that she came to the determination of sparing the
poor child the inheritance of any part of the agony she had known
the pains of, by rearing her in the belief that her father was dead—
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No, don』t kneel! In Heaven』s name why should you kneel to me!」
「For the truth. O dear, good, compassionate sir, for the truth!」
「A—a matter of business. You confuse me, and how can I
transact business if I am confused? Let us be clear-headed. If you
could kindly mention now, for instance, what nine times
ninepence are, or how many shillings in twenty guineas, it would
be so encouraging. I should be so much more at my ease about
your state of mind.」
Without directly answering to this appeal, she sat so still when
he had very gently raised her, and the hands that had not ceased
to clasp his wrists were so much more steady than they had been,
that she communicated some reassurance to Mr. Jarvis Lorry.
「That』s right, that』s right. Courage! Business! You have
business before you; useful business. Miss Manette, your mother
took this course with you. And when she died—I believe brokenhearted—having never slackened her unavailing search for your
father, she left you, at two years old, to grow to be blooming,
beautiful, and happy, without the dark cloud upon you of living in
uncertainty whether your father soon wore his heart out in prison,
or wasted there through many lingering years.」
As he said the words he looked down, with an admiring pity, on
the flowing golden hair; as if he pictured to himself that it might
have been already tinged with grey.
「You know that your parents had no great possession, and that
what they had was secured to your mother and to you. There has
been no new discovery, of money, or of any other property; but—」
He felt his wrist held closer, and he stopped. The expression in the
forehead, which had so particularly attracted his notice, and which
was now immovable, had deepened into one of pain and horror.
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「But he has been—been found. He is alive. Greatly changed, it
is too probable; almost a wreck, it is possible; though we will hope
for the best. Still, alive. Your father has been taken to the house of
an old servant in Paris, and we are going there: I, to identify him if
I can: you, to restore him to life, love, duty, rest, comfort.」
A shiver ran through her frame, and from it through his. She
said, in a low, distinct, awe-stricken voice, as if she were saying it
in a dream, 「I am going to see his Ghost! It will be his Ghost—not
him!」
Mr. Lorry quietly chafed the hands that held his arm. 「There,
there, there! See now, see now! The best and the worst are known
to you, now. You are well on your way to the poor wronged
gentleman, and, with a fair sea voyage, and a fair land journey, you
will be soon at his dear side.」
She repeated in the same tone, sunk to a whisper, 「I have been
free, I have been happy, yet his Ghost has never haunted me!」
「Only one thing more,」 said Mr. Lorry, laying stress upon it as a
wholesome means of enforcing her attention: 「he has been found
under another name; his own, long forgotten or long concealed. It
would be worse than useless now to inquire which; worse than
useless to seek to know whether he has been for years overlooked,
or always designedly held prisoner. It would be worse than useless
now to make any inquiries, because it would be dangerous. Better
not to mention the subject, anywhere or in any way, and to remove
him—for a while at all events—out of France. Even I, safe as an
Englishman, and even Tellson』s, important as they are to French
credit, avoid all naming of the matter. I carry about me, not a
scrap of writing openly referring to it. This is a secret service
altogether. My credentials, entries, and memoranda, are all
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comprehended in the one line, 『Recalled to Life』; which may mean
anything. But what is the matter! She doesn』t notice a word! Miss
Manette!」
Perfectly still and silent, and not even fallen back in her chair,
she sat under his hand, utterly insensible; with her eyes open and
fixed upon him, and with that last expression looking as if it were
carved or branded into her forehead. So close was her hold upon
his arm, that he feared to detach himself lest he should hurt her;
therefore he called out loudly for assistance without moving.
A wild-looking woman, whom even in his agitation, Mr. Lorry
observed to be all of a red colour, and to have red hair, and to be
dressed in some extraordinary tight-fitting fashion, and to have on
her head a most wonderful bonnet like a Grenadier wooden
measure, and good measure too, or a great Stilton cheese, came
running into the room in advance of the inn servants, and soon
settled the question of his detachment from the poor young lady,
by laying a brawny hand upon his chest, and sending him flying
back against the nearest wall.
(「I really think this must be a man!」 was Mr. Lorry』s breathless
reflection, simultaneously with his coming against the wall.)
「Why, look at you all!」 bawled this figure, addressing the inn
servants. 「Why don』t you go and fetch things, instead of standing
there staring at me? I am not so much to look at, am I? Why don』t
you go and fetch things? I』ll let you know, if you don』t bring
smelling-salts, cold water, and vinegar, quick, I will.」
There was an immediate dispersal for these restoratives, and
she softly laid the patient on a sofa, and tended her with great skill
and gentleness: calling her 「my precious!」 and 「my bird!」 and
spreading her golden hair aside over her shoulders with great
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pride and care.
「And you in brown!」 she said, indignantly turning to Mr. Lorry;
「couldn』t you tell her what you had to tell her, without frightening
her to death? Look at her, with her pale face and her cold hands.
Do you call that being a Banker?」
Mr. Lorry was so exceedingly disconcerted by a question so
hard to answer, that he could only look on, at a distance, with
much feebler sympathy and humility, while the strong woman,
having banished the inn servants under the mysterious penalty of
「letting them know」 something not mentioned if they stayed
there, staring, recovered her charge by a regular series of
gradations, and coaxed her to lay her drooping head upon her
shoulder.
「I hope she will do well now,」 said Mr. Lorry.
「No thanks to you in brown, if she does. My darling pretty!」
「I hope,」 said Mr. Lorry, after another pause of feeble
sympathy and humility, 「that you accompany Miss Manette to
France?」
「A likely thing, too!」 replied the strong woman. 「If it was ever
intended that I should go across salt water, do you suppose
Providence would have cast my lot in an island?」
This being another question hard to answer, Mr. Jarvis Lorry
withdrew to consider it.
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Chapter V
THE WINE SHOP
Alarge cask of wine had been dropped and broken, in the
street. The accident had happened in getting it out of a
cart; the cask had tumbled out with a run, the hoops had
burst, and it lay on the stones just outside the door of the wine-
shop, shattered like a walnut-shell.
All the people within reach had suspended their business, or
their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine. The rough,
irregular stones of the street, pointing every way, and designed,
one might have thought, expressly to lame all living creatures that
approached them, had damned it into little pools; these were
surrounded, each by its own jostling group or crowd, according to
its size. Some men kneeled down, made scoops of their two hands
joined, and sipped, or tried to help women, who bent over their
shoulders, to sip, before the wine had all run out between their
fingers. Others, men and women, dipped in the puddles with little
mugs of mutilated earthenware, or even with handkerchiefs from
women』s heads, which were squeezed dry into infants』 mouths;
others made small mud-embankments, to stem the wine as it ran;
others, directed by lookers-on up at high windows, darted here
and there, to cut off little streams of wine that started away in new
directions; others devoted themselves to the sodden and lee-dyed
pieces of the cask, licking, and even champing the moister wine-
rotted fragments with eager relish. There was no drainage to carry
off the wine, and not only did it all get taken up, but so much mud
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got taken up along with it that there might have been a scavenger
in the street, if anybody acquainted with it could have believed in
such a miraculous presence.
A shrill sound of laughter and of amused voices—voices of men,
women, and children—resounded in the street while this wine
game lasted. There was little roughness in the sport, and much
playfulness. There was a special companionship in it, and
observable inclination on the part of every one to join some other
one, which led, especially among the luckier or lighter-hearted, to
frolicsome embraces, drinking of healths, shaking of hands, and
even joining of hands and dancing, a dozen together. When the
wine was gone, and the places where it had been most abundant
were raked into a gridiron-pattern by fingers, these
demonstrations ceased, as suddenly as they had broken out. The
man who had left his saw sticking in the firewood he was cutting,
set it in motion again; the woman who had left on a door-step the
little pot of hot ashes, at which she had been trying to soften the
pain in her own starved fingers and toes, or in those of her child,
returned to it; men with bare arms, matted locks, and cadaverous
faces, who had emerged into the winter light from cellars, moved
away, to descend again; and a gloom gathered on the scene that
appeared more natural to it than sunshine.
The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the
narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it
was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and
many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man
who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the
forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the
stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who
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had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a
tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched,
his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it,
scrawled upon a wall with his fingers dipped in muddy wine-lees—
BLOOD.
The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on
the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many
there.
And now that the cloud settled on Saint Antoine, which a
momentary gleam had driven from his sacred countenance, the
darkness of it was heavy—cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and
want, were the lords in waiting on the saintly presence—nobles of
great power all of them; but, most especially the last. Samples of a
people that had undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in
the mill, and certainly not in the fabulous mill which ground old
people young, shivered at every corner, passed in and out at every
doorway, looked from every window, fluttered in every vestige of a
garment that the wind shook. The mill which had worked them
down, was the mill that grinds young people old; the children had
ancient faces and grave voices; and upon them, and upon the
grown faces, and ploughed into every furrow of age and coming up
afresh, was the sign, Hunger. It was prevalent everywhere.
Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses, in the wretched
clothing that hung upon poles and lines; Hunger was patched into
them with straw and rag and wood and paper; Hunger was
repeated in every fragment of the small modicum of firewood that
the man sawed off; Hunger stared down from the smokeless
chimneys, and started up from the filthy street that had no offal,
among its refuse, or anything to eat. Hunger was the inscription
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on the baker』s shelves, written in every small loaf of his scanty
stock of bad bread; at the sausage-shop, in every dead-dog
preparation that was offered for sale. Hunger rattled its dry bones
among the roasting chestnuts in the turned cylinder; Hunger was
shred into atomies in every farthing porringer of husky chips of
potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil.
Its abiding place was in all things fitted to it. A narrow winding
street, full of offence and stench, with other narrow winding
streets diverging, all peopled by rags and nightcaps, and all
smelling of rags and nightcaps, and all visible things with a
brooding look upon them that looked ill. In the hunted air of the
people there was yet some wild-beast thought of the possibility of
turning at bay. Depressed and slinking though they were, eyes of
fire were not wanting among them; nor compressed lips, white
with what they suppressed; or foreheads knitted into the likeness
of the gallows-rope they mused about enduring, or inflicting. The
trade signs (and they were almost as many as the shops) were, all,
grim illustrations of Want. The butcher and the porkman painted
up only the leanest scrags of meat; the baker, the coarsest of
meagre loaves. The people rudely pictured as drinking in the
wine-shops, croaked over their scanty measures of thin wine and
beer, and were gloweringly confidential together. Nothing was
represented in a flourishing condition, save tools and weapons;
but, the cutler』s knives and axes were sharp and bright, the
smith』s hammers were heavy, and the gunmaker』s stock was
murderous. The crippling stones of the pavement, with their many
little reservoirs of mud and water, had no footways, but broke off
abruptly at the doors. The kennel, to make amends, ran down the
middle of the street—when it ran at all: which was only after heavy
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rains, and then it ran, by many eccentric fits, into the houses.
Across the streets, at wide intervals, one clumsy lamp was slung
by a rope and pulley; at night, when the lamplighter had let these
down, and lighted, and hoisted them again, a feeble grove of dim
wicks swung in a sickly manner overhead, as if they were at sea.
Indeed they were at sea, and the ship and crew were in peril of
tempest.
For, the time was to come, when the gaunt scarecrows of that
region should have watched the lamplighter, in their idleness and
hunger, so long, as to conceive the idea of improving on his
method, and hauling up men by those ropes and pulleys, to flare
upon the darkness of their condition. But, the time was not come
yet; and every wind that blew over France shook the rags of the
scarecrows in vain, for the birds, fine of song and feather, took no
warning.
The wine-shop was a corner shop, better than most others in its
appearance and degree, and the master of the wine-shop had
stood outside it, in a yellow waistcoat and green breeches, looking
on at the struggle for the lost wine. 「It』s not my affair,」 said he,
with a final shrug of the shoulders. 「The people from the market
did it. Let them bring another.」
There, his eyes happening to catch the tall joker writing up his
joke, he called to him across the way:
「Say, then, my Gaspard, what do you do there?」
The fellow pointed to his joke with immense significance, as is
often the way with his tribe. It missed its mark, and completely
failed, as is often the way with his tribe too.
「What now? Are you a subject for the mad hospital?」 said the
wine-shop keeper, crossing the road, and obliterating the jest with
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a handful of mud, picked up for the purpose, and smeared over it.
「Why do you write in the public streets? Is there—tell me thou—is
there no other place to write such words in?」
In his expostulation he dropped his cleaner hand (perhaps
accidentally, perhaps not) upon the joker』s heart. The joker
rapped it with his own, took a nimble spring upward, and came
down in a fantastic dancing attitude, with one of his stained shoes
jerked off his foot into his hand, and held out. A joker of an
extremely, not to say wolfishly practical character, he looked,
under those circumstances.
「Put it on, put it on,」 said the other. 「Call wine, wine; and finish
there.」 With that advice, he wiped his soiled hand upon the joker』s
dress, such as it was—quite deliberately, as having dirtied the
hand on his account; and then re-crossed the road and entered the
wine-shop.
This wine-shop keeper was a bull-necked, martial-looking man
of thirty, and he should have been of a hot temperament, for,
although it was a bitter day, he wore no coat, but carried one slung
over his shoulder. His shirt-sleeves were rolled up, too, and his
brown arms were bare to the elbows. Neither did he wear
anything more on his head than his own crisply-curling short dark
hair. He was a dark man altogether, with good eyes and a good
bold breadth between them. Good-humoured looking on the
whole, but implacable-looking, too; evidently a man of a strong
resolution and a set purpose; a man not desirable to be met,
rushing down a narrow pass with a gulf on either side, for nothing
would turn the man.
Madame Defarge, his wife, sat in the shop behind the counter
as he came in. Madame Defarge was a stout woman of about his
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own age, with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at
anything, a large hand heavily ringed, a steady face, strong
features, and great composure of manner. There was a character
about Madame Defarge from which one might have predicted that
she did not often make mistakes against herself in any of the
reckonings over which she presided. Madame Defarge being
sensitive to cold, was wrapped in fur, and had a quantity of bright
shawl twined about her head, though not to the concealment of
her large ear-rings. Her knitting was before her, but she had laid it
down to pick her teeth with a toothpick. Thus engaged, with her
right elbow supported by her left hand, Madame Defarge said
nothing when her lord came in, but coughed just one grain of
cough. This, in combination with the lifting of her darkly defined
eyebrows over her toothpick by the breadth of a line, suggested to
her husband that he would do well to look round the shop among
the customers, for any new customer who had dropped in while he
stepped over the way.
The wine-shop keeper accordingly rolled his eyes about, until
they rested upon an elderly gentleman and a young lady, who
were seated in a corner. Other company were there; two playing
cards, two playing dominoes, three standing by the counter
lengthening out a short supply of wine. As he passed behind the
counter, he took notice that the elderly gentleman said in a look to
the young lady, 「This is our man.」
「What the devil do you do in that galley there?」 said Monsieur
Defarge to himself; 「I don』t know you.」
But, he feigned not to notice the two strangers, and fell into
discourse with the triumvirate of customers who were drinking at
the counter.
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「How goes it, Jacques?」 said one of these three to Monsieur
Defarge. 「Is all the spilt wine swallowed?」
「Every drop, Jacques,」 answered Monsieur Defarge.
When this interchange of christian name was effected, Madame
Defarge, picking her teeth with her toothpick, coughed another
grain of cough, and raised her eyebrows by the breadth of another
line.
「It is not often,」 said the second of the three, addressing
Monsieur Defarge, 「that many of these miserable beasts know the
taste of wine, or of anything but black bread and death. Is it not so,
Jacques?」
「It is so, Jacques,」 Monsieur Defarge returned. At this second
interchange of the christian name, Madame Defarge, still using
her toothpick with profound composure, coughed another grain of
cough, and raised her eyebrows by the breadth of another line.
The last of the three now said his say, as he put down his empty
drinking vessel and smacked his lips.
「Ah! So much the worse! A bitter taste it is that such poor cattle
always have in their mouths, and hard lives they live, Jacques. Am
I right, Jacques?」
「You are right, Jacques,」 was the response of Monsieur
Defarge.
This third interchange of the christian name was completed at
the moment when Madame Defarge put her toothpick by, kept her
eyebrows up, and slightly rustled in her seat.
「Hold then! True!」 muttered her husband. 「Gentlemen—my
wife!」
The three customers pulled off their hats to Madame Defarge,
with three flourishes. She acknowledged their homage by bending
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her head, and giving them a quick look. Then she glanced in a
casual manner round the wine-shop, took up her knitting with
great apparent calmness and repose of spirit and became
absorbed in it.
「Gentlemen,」 said her husband, who had kept his bright eye
observantly upon her, 「good day. The chamber, furnished
bachelor-fashion, that you wished to see, and were inquiring for
when I stepped out, is on the fifth floor. The doorway of the
staircase gives on the little courtyard close to the left here,」
pointing with his hand, 「near to the window of my establishment.
But, now that I remember, one of you has already been there, and
can show the way. Gentlemen, adieu!」
They paid for their wine and left the place. The eyes of
Monsieur Defarge were studying his wife at her knitting when the
elderly gentleman advanced from his corner, and begged the
favour of a word.
「Willingly, sir,」 said Monsieur Defarge, and quietly stepped
with him to the door.
Their conference was very short, but very decided. Almost at
the first word, Monsieur Defarge started and became deeply
attentive. It had not lasted a minute, when he nodded and went
out. The gentleman then beckoned to the young lady, and they,
too, went out. Madame Defarge knitted with nimble fingers and
steady eyebrows, and saw nothing.
Mr. Jarvis Lorry and Miss Manette, emerging from the wine-
shop thus, joined Monsieur Defarge in the doorway to which he
had directed his other company just before. It opened from a
stinking little black courtyard, and was the general public
entrance to a great pile of houses, inhabited by a great number of
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people. In the gloomy tile-paved entry to the gloomy tile-paved
staircase, Monsieur Defarge bent down on one knee to the child of
his old master, and put her hand to his lips. It was a gentle action,
but not at all gently done; a very remarkable transformation had
come over him in a few seconds. He had no good-humour in his
face, nor any openness of aspect left, but had become a secret,
angry, dangerous man.
「It is very high; it is a little difficult. Better to begin slowly.」
Thus, Monsieur Defarge, in a stern voice, to Mr. Lorry, as they
began ascending the stairs.
「Is he alone?」 the latter whispered.
「Alone! God help him, who should be with him!」 said the other,
in the same low voice.
「Is he always alone, then?」
「Yes.」
「Of his own desire?」
「Of his own necessity. As he was, when I first saw him after
they found me and demanded to know if I would take him, and, at
my peril be discreet—as he was then, so he is now.」
「He is greatly changed?」
「Changed!」
The keeper of the wine-shop stopped to strike the wall with his
hand, and mutter a tremendous curse. No direct answer could
have been half so forcible. Mr. Lorry』s spirits grew heavier and
heavier, as he and his two companions ascended higher and
higher.
Such a staircase, with its accessories, in the older and more
crowded parts of Paris, would be bad enough now; but, at that
time, it was vile indeed to unaccustomed and unhardened senses.
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Every little habitation within the great foul nest of one high
building—that is to say, the room or rooms within every door that
opened on the general staircase—left its own heap of refuse on its
own landing, besides flinging other refuse from its own windows.
The uncontrollable and hopeless mass of decomposition so
engendered, would have polluted the air, even if poverty and
deprivation had not loaded it with their intangible impurities; the
two bad sources combined made it almost insupportable. Through
such an atmosphere, by a steep dark shaft of dirt and poison, the
way lay. Yielding to his own disturbance of mind, and to his young
companion』s agitation, which became greater every instant, Mr.
Jarvis Lorry twice stopped to rest. Each of these stoppages was
made at a doleful grating, by which any languishing good airs that
were left uncorrupted seemed to escape, and all spoilt and sickly
vapours seemed to crawl in. Through the rusted bars, tastes,
rather than glimpses, were caught of the jumbled neighbourhood;
and nothing within range, nearer or lower than the summits of the
two great towers of Notre-Dame, had any promise on it of healthy
life or wholesome aspirations.
At last, the top of the staircase was gained, and they stopped for
the third time. There was yet an upper staircase, of a steeper
inclination and of contracted dimensions, to be ascended, before
the garret story was reached. The keeper of the wine-shop, always
going a little in advance, and always going on the side which Mr.
Lorry took, as though he dreaded to be asked any question by the
young lady, turned himself about here, and, carefully feeling in the
pockets of the coat he carried over his shoulder, took out a key.
「The door is locked then, my friend?」 said Mr. Lorry, surprised.
「Ay. Yes,」 was the grim reply of Monsieur Defarge.
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「You think it necessary to keep the unfortunate gentleman so
retired?」
「I think it necessary to turn the key.」 Monsieur Defarge
whispered it closer in his ear, and frowned heavily.
「Why?」
「Why! Because he has lived so long, locked up, that he would
be frightened—rave, tear himself to pieces—die—come to I know
not what harm—if his door was left open.」
「Is it possible?」 exclaimed Mr. Lorry.
「Is it possible!」 repeated Defarge, bitterly. 「Yes. And a
beautiful world we live in, when it is possible, and when many
other such things are possible, and not only possible, but done—
done, see you!—under that sky there, every day. Long live the
Devil. Let us go on.」
This dialogue had been held in so very low a whisper, that not a
word of it had reached the young lady』s ears. But, by this time she
trembled under such strong emotion, and her face expressed such
deep anxiety, and, above all, such dread and terror, that Mr. Lorry
felt it incumbent on him to speak a word or two of reassurance.
「Courage, dear miss! Courage! Business! The worst will be over
in a moment; it is but passing the room-door, and the worst is
over. Then, all the good you bring to him, all the relief, all the
happiness you bring to him, begin. Let our good friend here, assist
you on that side. That』s well, friend Defarge. Come, now. Business,
business!」 They went up slowly and softly. The staircase was
short, and they were soon at the top. There, as it had an abrupt
turn in it, they came all at once in sight of three men, whose heads
were bent down close together at the side of a door, and who were
intently looking into the room to which the door belonged,
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through some chinks or holes in the wall. On hearing footsteps
close at hand, these three turned, and rose, and showed
themselves to be the three of one name who had been drinking in
the wine-shop.
「I forgot them in the surprise of your visit,」 explained Monsieur
Defarge. 「Leave us, good boys; we have business here.」
The three glided by, and went silently down.
There appearing to be no other door on that floor, and the
keeper of the wine-shop going straight to this one when they were
left alone, Mr. Lorry asked him in a whisper with a little anger:
「Do you make a show of Monsieur Manette?」
「I show him, in the way you have seen, to a chosen few.」
「Is that well?」
「I think it is well.」
「Who are the few? How do you choose them?」
「I choose them as real men, of my name—Jacques is my
name—to whom the sight is likely to do good. Enough; you are
English; that is another thing. Stay there, if you please, a little
moment.」
With an admonitory gesture to keep them back, he stooped, and
looked in through the crevice in the wall. Soon raising his head
again, he struck twice or thrice upon the door—evidently with no
other object than to make a noise there. With the same intention,
he drew the key across it, three or four times, before he put it
clumsily into the lock, and turned it as heavily as he could.
The door slowly opened inward under his hand, and he looked
into the room and said something. A faint voice answered
something. Little more than a single syllable could have been
spoken on either side.
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He looked back over his shoulder, and beckoned them to enter.
Mr. Lorry got his arm securely round the daughter』s waist, and
held her; for he felt that she was sinking.
「A—a—a—business, business!」 he urged with a moisture that
was not of business shining on his cheek. 「Come in, come in!」
「I am afraid of it,」 she answered, shuddering.
「Of it? What?」
「I mean of him. Of my father.」
Rendered in a manner desperate, by her state and by the
beckoning of their conductor, he drew over his neck the arm that
shook upon his shoulder, lifted her a little, and hurried her into
the room. He set her down just within the door, and held her,
clinging to him.
Defarge drew out the key, closed the door, locked it on the
inside, took out the key again, and held it in his hand. All this he
did, methodically, and with as loud and harsh an accompaniment
of noise as he could make. Finally, he walked across the room with
a measured tread to where the window was. He stopped there and
faced round.
The garret, built to be a depository for firewood and the like,
was dim and dark; for, the window of dormer shape, was in truth a
door in the roof, with a little crane over it for the hoisting up of
stores from the street: unglazed, and closing up the middle in two
pieces, like any other door of French construction. To exclude the
cold, one half of this door was fast closed, and the other was
opened but a very little way. Such a scanty portion of light was
admitted through these means, that it was difficult, on first coming
in, to see anything; and long habit alone could have slowly formed
in any one, the ability to do any work requiring nicety in such
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obscurity. Yet, work of that kind was being done in the garret; for,
with his back towards the door, and his face towards the window
where the keeper of the wine-shop stood looking at him, a white-
haired man sat on a low bench, stooping forward and very busy,
making shoes.
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Chapter VI
THE SHOEMAKER
G ood day!」 said Monsieur Defarge, looking down at the
white head that bent low over the shoemaking.
It was raised for a moment, and a very faint voice
responded to the salutation, as if it were at a distance: 「Good day!」
「You are still hard at work, I see?」
After a long silence, the head was lifted for another moment,
and the voice replied, 「Yes—I am working.」 This time, a pair of
haggard eyes had looked at the questioner, before the face had
dropped again.
The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not
the faintness of physical weakness, though confinement and hard
fare no doubt had their part in it. Its deplorable peculiarity was,
that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last
feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago. So entirely had it
lost the life and resonance of the human voice, that it affected the
senses like a once beautiful colour faded away into a poor weak
stain. So sunken and suppressed it was, that it was like a voice
underground. So expressive it was, of a hopeless and lost creature,
that a famished traveller, wearied out by lonely wandering in a
wilderness, would have remembered home and friends in such a
tone before lying down to die.
Some minutes of silent work had passed: and the haggard eyes
had looked up again: not with any interest or curiosity, but with a
dull mechanical perception, beforehand, that the spot where the
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only visitor they were aware of had stood, was not yet empty.
「I want,」 said Defarge, who had not removed his gaze from the
shoemaker, 「to let in a little more light here. You can bear a little
more?」
The shoemaker stopped his work; looked with a vacant air of
listening, at the floor on one side of him; then similarly, at the floor
on the other side of him; then, upward at the speaker.
「What did you say?」
「You can bear a little more light?」
「I must bear it, if you let it in.」 (Laying the palest shadow of a
stress upon the second word.) The opened half-door was opened a
little further, and secured at that angle for the time. A broad ray of
light fell into the garret, and showed the workman with an
unfinished shoe upon his lap, pausing in his labour. His few
common tools and various scraps of leather were at his feet and on
his bench. He had a white beard, raggedly cut, but not very long, a
hollow face, and exceedingly bright eyes. The hollowness and
thinness of his face would have caused them to look large, under
his yet dark eyebrows and his confused white hair, though they
had been really otherwise; but, they were naturally large, and
looked unnaturally so. His yellow rags of shirt lay open at the
throat, and showed his body to be withered and worn. He, and his
old canvas frock, and his loose stockings, and all his poor tatters of
clothes, had, in a long seclusion from direct light and air, faded
down to such a dull uniformity of parchment-yellow, that it would
have been hard to say which was which.
He had put up a hand between his eyes and the light, and the
very bones of it seemed transparent. So he sat, with a steadfastly
vacant gaze, pausing in his work. He never looked at the figure
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before him, without first looking down on this side of himself, then
on that, as if he had lost the habit of associating place with sound;
he never spoke, without first wandering in this manner, and
forgetting to speak.
「Are you going to finish that pair of shoes today?」 asked
Defarge, motioning to Mr. Lorry to come forward.
「What did you say?」
「Do you mean to finish that pair of shoes today?」
「I can』t say that I mean to. I suppose so. I don』t know.」
But, the question reminded him of his work, and he bent over it
again.
Mr. Lorry came silently forward, leaving the daughter by the
door. When he had stood, for a minute or two, by the side of
Defarge, the shoemaker looked up. He showed no surprise at
seeing another figure, but the unsteady fingers of one of his hands
strayed to his lips as he looked at it (his lips and his nails were of
the same pale lead-colour), and then the hand dropped to his
work, and he once more bent over the shoe. The look and the
action had occupied but an instant.
「You have a visitor, you see,」 said Monsieur Defarge.
「What did you say?」
「Here is a visitor.」
The shoemaker looked up as before, but without removing a
hand from his work.
「Come!」 said Defarge. 「Here is monsieur, who knows a well-
made shoe when he sees one. Show him that shoe you are working
at. Take it, monsieur.」
Mr. Lorry took it in his hand.
「Tell monsieur what kind of shoe it is, and the maker』s name.」
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There was a longer pause than usual, before the shoemaker
replied: 「I forget what it was you asked me. What did you say?」
「I said, couldn』t you describe the kind of shoe, for monsieur』s
information?」
「It is a lady』s shoe. It is a young lady』s walking-shoe. It is in the
present mode. I never saw the mode. I have had a pattern in my
hand.」 He glanced at the shoe with some little passing touch of
pride.
「And the maker』s name?」 said Defarge.
Now that he had no work to hold, he laid the knuckles of the
right hand in the hollow of the left, and then the knuckles of the
left hand in the hollow of the right, and then passed a hand across
his bearded chin, and so on in regular changes, without a
moment』s intermission. The task of recalling him from the vacancy
into which he always sank when he had spoken, was like recalling
some very weak person from a swoon, or endeavouring, in the
hope of some disclosure, to stay the spirit of a fast-dying man.
「Did you ask me for my name?」
「Assuredly I did.」
「One Hundred and Five, North Tower.」
「Is that all?」
「One Hundred and Five, North Tower.」
With a weary sound that was not a sigh, nor a groan, he bent to
work again, until the silence was again broken.
「You are not a shoemaker by trade?」 said Mr. Lorry, looking
steadfastly at him.
His haggard eyes turned to Defarge, as if he would have
transferred the question to him: but as no help came from that
quarter, they turned back on the questioner when they had sought
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the ground.
「I am not a shoemaker by trade? No, I was not a shoemaker by
trade. I—I learnt it here. I taught myself. I asked leave to—」 He
lapsed away, even for minutes, ringing those measured changes on
his hands the whole time. His eyes came slowly back, at last, to the
face from which they had wandered; when they rested on it, he
started, and resumed, in the manner of a sleeper that moment
awake, reverting to a subject of last night.
「I asked leave to teach myself, and I got it with much difficulty
after a long while, and I have made shoes ever since.」
As he held out his hand for the shoe that had been taken from
him, Mr. Lorry said, still looking steadfastly in his face:
「Monsieur Manette, do you remember nothing of me?」
The shoe dropped to the ground, and he sat looking fixedly at
the questioner.
「Monsieur Manette」; Mr. Lorry laid his hand upon Defarge』s
arm; 「do you remember nothing of this man? Look at him. Look at
me. Is there no old banker, no old business, no old servant, no old
time, rising in your mind, Monsieur Manette?」
As the captive of many years sat looking fixedly, by turns, at Mr.
Lorry and at Defarge, some long obliterated marks of an actively
intent intelligence in the middle of the forehead, gradually forced
themselves through the black mist that had fallen on him. They
were overclouded again, they were fainter, they were gone; but
they had been there. And so exactly was the expression repeated
on the fair young face of her who had crept along the wall to a
point where she could see him, and where she now stood looking
at him, with hands which at first had been only raised in
frightened compassion, if not even to keep him off and shut out
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the sight of him, but which were now extending towards him,
trembling with eagerness to lay the spectral face upon her warm
young breast, and love it back to life and hope—so exactly was the
expression repeated (though in stronger characters) on her fair
young face, that it looked as though it had passed like a moving
light, from him to her.
Darkness had fallen on him in its place. He looked at the two,
less and less attentively, and his eyes in gloomy abstraction sought
the ground and looked about him in the old way. Finally with a
deep long sigh, he took the shoe up, and resumed his work.
「Have you recognised him, monsieur?」 asked Defarge in a
whisper.
「Yes; for a moment. At first I thought it quite hopeless, but I
have unquestionably seen, for a single moment, the face that I
once knew so well. Hush! Let us draw further back. Hush!」
She had moved from the wall of the garret, very near to the
bench on which he sat. There was something awful in his
unconsciousness of the figure that could have put out its hand and
touched him as he stooped over his labour.
Not a word was spoken, not a sound was made. She stood like a
spirit, beside him, and he bent over his work.
It happened, at length, that he had occasion to change the
instrument in his hand, for his shoemaker』s knife. It lay on that
side of him which was not the side on which she stood. He had
taken it up, and was stooping to work again, when his eyes caught
the skirt of her dress. He raised them, and saw her face. The two
spectators started forward, but she stayed them with a motion of
her hand. She had no fear of his striking at her with the knife,
though they had.
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He stared at her with a fearful look, and after a while his lips
began to form some words, though no sound proceeded from
them. By degrees, in the pauses of his quick and laboured
breathing, he was heard to say:
「What is this?」
With the tears streaming down her face, she put her two hands
to her lips, and kissed them to him; then clasped them on her
breast, as if she laid his ruined head there.
「You are not the gaoler』s daughter?」
She sighed 「No.」
「Who are you?」
Not yet trusting the tones of her voice, she sat down on the
bench beside him. He recoiled, but she laid her hand upon his
arm. A strange thrill struck him when she did so, and visibly
passed over his frame; he laid the knife down softly, as he sat
staring at her.
Her golden hair, which she wore in long curls, had been
hurriedly pushed aside, and fell down over her neck. Advancing
his hand by little and little, he took it up and looked at it. In the
midst of the action he went astray, and, with another deep sigh,
fell to work at his shoemaking.
But not for long. Releasing his arm, she laid her hand upon his
shoulder. After looking doubtfully at it, two or three times, as if to
be sure that it was really there, he laid down his work, put his
hand to his neck, and took off a blackened string with a scrap of
folded rag attached to it. He opened this, carefully, on his knee,
and it contained a very little quantity of hair: not more than one or
two long golden hairs, which he had, in some old day, wound off
upon his finger.
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He took her hair into his hand again, and looked closely at it. 「It
is the same. How can it be! When was it! How was it!」
As the concentrating expression returned to his forehead, he
seemed to become conscious that it was in her too. He turned her
full to the light, and looked at her.
「She had laid her head upon my shoulder, that night when I
was summoned out—she had a fear of my going, though I had
none—and when I was brought to the North Tower they found
these upon my sleeve. 『You will leave me them? They can never
help me to escape in the body, though they may in the spirit.』
Those were the words I said. I remember them very well.」
He formed this speech with his lips many times before he could
utter it. But when he did find spoken words for it, they came to
him coherently, though slowly.
「How was this?—Was it you?」
Once more, the two spectators started, as he turned upon her
with a frightful suddenness. But she sat perfectly still in his grasp,
and only said, in a low voice, 「I entreat you, good gentlemen, do
not come near us, do not speak, do not move!」
「Hark」 he exclaimed. 「Whose voice was that?」
His hands released her as he uttered this cry, and went up to
his white hair, which they tore in a frenzy. It died out, as
everything but his shoemaking did die out of him, and he refolded
his little packet and tried to secure it in his breast; but he still
looked at her, and gloomily shook his head.
「No, no, no; you are too young, too blooming. It can』t be. See
what the prisoner is. These are not the hands she knew, this is not
the face she knew, this is not a voice she ever heard. No, no. She
was—and He was—before the slow years of the North Tower—
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ages ago. What is your name, my gentle angel?」
Hailing his softened tone and manner, his daughter fell upon
her knees before him, with her appealing hands upon his breast.
「O, sir, at another time you shall know my name, and who my
mother was, and who my father, and how I never knew their hard,
hard history. But I cannot tell you at this time, and I cannot tell
you here. All that I may tell you, here and now, is, that I pray to
you to touch me and to bless me. Kiss me, kiss me! O my dear, my
dear!」
His cold white head mingled with her radiant hair, which
warmed and lighted it as though it were the light of Freedom
shining on him.
「If you hear in my voice—I don』t know that it is so, but I hope it
is—if you hear in my voice any resemblance to a voice that once
was sweet music in your ears, weep for it, weep for it! If you touch,
in touching my hair, anything that recalls a beloved head that lay
on your breast when you were young and free, weep for it, weep
for it! If, when I hint to you of a Home that is before us, where I
will be true to you with all my duty and with all my faithful service,
I bring back the remembrance of a Home long desolate, while your
poor heart pined away, weep for it, weep for it!」
She held him closer round the neck, and rocked him on her
breast like a child.
「If, when I tell you, dearest dear, that your agony is over, and
that I have come here to take you from it, and that we go to
England to be at peace and at rest, I cause you to think of your
useful life laid waste, and of our native France so wicked to you,
weep for it, weep for it! And if, when I shall tell you of my name,
and of my father who is living, and of my mother who is dead, you
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learn that I have to kneel to my honoured father, and implore his
pardon for having never for his sake striven all day and lain awake
and wept all night, because the love of my poor mother hid his
torture from me, weep for it, weep for it! Weep for her, then, and
for me! Good gentlemen, thank God! I feel his sacred tears upon
my face, and his sobs strike against my heart. O, see! Thank God
for us, thank God!」
He had sunk in her arms, and his face dropped on her breast: a
sight so touching, yet so terrible in the tremendous wrong and
suffering which had gone before it, that the two beholders covered
their faces.
When the quiet of the garret had been long undisturbed, and
his heaving breast and shaken form had long yielded to the calm
that must follow all storms—emblem to humanity, of the rest and
silence into which the storm called Life must hush at last—they
came forward to raise the father and daughter from the ground.
He had gradually dropped to the floor, and lay there in a lethargy,
worn out. She had nestled down with him, that his head might lie
upon her arm; and her hair drooping over him curtained him from
the light.
「If, without disturbing him,」 she said, raising her hand to Mr.
Lorry as he stooped over them, after repeated blowings of his
nose, 「all could be arranged for our leaving Paris at once, so that,
from the very door, he could be taken away—」
「But, consider. Is he fit for the journey?」 asked Mr. Lorry.
「More fit for that, I think, than to remain in this city, so
dreadful to him.」
「It is true,」 said Defarge, who was kneeling to look on and hear.
「More than that; Monsieur Manette is, for all reasons, best out of
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France. Say, shall I hire a carriage and post-horses?」
「That』s business,」 said Mr. Lorry, resuming on the shortest
notice his methodical manners; 「and if business is to be done, I
had better do it.」
「Then be so kind,」 urged Miss Manette, 「as to leave us here.
You see how composed he has become, and you cannot be afraid
to leave him with me now. Why should you be? If you will lock the
door to secure us from interruption, I do not doubt that you will
find him, when you come back, as quiet as you leave him. In any
case, I will take care of him until you return, and then we will
remove him straight.」
Both Mr. Lorry and Defarge were rather disinclined to this
course, and in favour of one of them remaining. But, as there were
not only carriages and horses to be seen to, but travelling papers;
and as time pressed, for the day was drawing to an end, it came at
last to their hastily dividing the business that was necessary to be
done, and hurrying away to do it.
Then, as the darkness closed in, the daughter laid her head
down on the hard ground close at her father』s side, and watched
him. The darkness deepened and deepened, and they both lay
quiet, until a light gleamed through the chinks in the wall.
Mr. Lorry and Monsieur Defarge had made all ready for the
journey, and had brought with them, besides travelling cloaks and
wrappers, bread and meat, wine, and hot coffee. Monsieur Defarge
put his provender, and the lamp he carried, on the shoemaker』s
bench (there was nothing else in the garret but a pallet-bed), and
he and Mr. Lorry roused the captive, and assisted him to his feet.
No human intelligence could have read the mysteries of his
mind, in the scared blank wonder of his face. Whether he knew
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what had happened, whether he recollected what they had said to
him, whether he knew that he was free, were questions which no
sagacity could have solved. They tried speaking to him; but, he
was so confused, and so very slow to answer, that they took fright
at his bewilderment, and agreed for the time to tamper with him
no more. He had a wild, lost manner of occasionally clasping his
head in his hands, that had not been seen in him before; yet, he
had some pleasure in the mere sound of his daughter』s voice, and
invariably turned to it when she spoke.
In the submissive way of one long accustomed to obey under
coercion, he ate and drank what they gave him to eat and drink,
and put on the cloak and other wrappings, that they gave him to
wear. He readily responded to his daughter』s drawing her arm
through his, and took—and kept—her hand in both his own.
They began to descend; Monsieur Defarge going first with the
lamp, Mr. Lorry closing the little procession. They had not
traversed many steps of the long main staircase when he stopped,
and stared at the roof and round at the walls.
「You remember the place, my father? You remember coming
up here?」
「What did you say?」
But, before she could repeat the question, he murmured an
answer as if she had repeated it.
「Remember? No, I don』t remember. It was so very long ago.」
That he had no recollection whatever of his having been
brought from his prison to that house, was apparent to them. They
heard him mutter, 「One Hundred and Five, North Tower」; and
when he looked about him, it evidently was for the strong fortress-
walls which had long encompassed him. On their reaching the
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courtyard he instinctively altered his tread, as being in expectation
of a drawbridge; and when there was no drawbridge, and he saw
the carriage waiting in the open street, he dropped his daughter』s
hand and clasped his head again.
No crowd was about the door; no people were discernible at
any of the many windows; not even a chance passer-by was in the
street. An unnatural silence and desertion reigned there. Only one
soul was to be seen, and that was Madame Defarge—who leaned
against the door-post, knitting, and saw nothing.
The prisoner had got into a coach, and his daughter had
followed him, when Mr. Lorry』s feet were arrested on the step by
his asking, miserably, for his shoemaking tools and the unfinished
shoes. Madame Defarge immediately called to her husband that
she would get them, and went, knitting, out of the lamplight,
through the courtyard. She quickly brought them down and
handed them in;—and immediately afterwards leaned against the
door-post, knitting, and saw nothing.
Defarge got upon the box, and gave the word 「To the Barrier!」
The postilion cracked his whip, and they clattered away under the
feeble over-swinging lamps.
Under the over-swinging lamps—swinging ever brighter in the
better streets, and ever dimmer in the worse—and by lighted
shops, gay crowds, illuminated coffee-houses, and theatre-doors,
to one of the city gates. Soldiers with lanterns, at the guardhouse
there. 「Your papers, travellers!」 「See here then, Monsieur the
Officer,」 said Defarge, getting down, and taking him gravely apart,
「these are the papers of monsieur inside, with the white head.
They were consigned to me, with him, at the—-」 He dropped his
voice, there was a flutter among the military lanterns, and one of
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them being handed into the coach by an arm in uniform, the eyes
connected with the arm looked, not an every day or an every night
look, at monsieur with the white head. 「It is well. Forward!」 from
the uniform. 「Adieu!」 from Defarge. And so, under a short grove
of feebler and feebler over-swinging lamps, out under the great
grove of stars.
Beneath that arch of unmoved and eternal lights; some, so
remote from this little earth that the learned tell us it is doubtful
whether their rays have even yet discovered it, as a point in space
where anything is suffered or done: the shadows of the night were
broad and black. All through the cold and restless interval, until
dawn, they once more whispered in the ears of Mr. Jarvis Lorry—
sitting opposite the buried man who had been dug out, and
wondering what subtle powers were for ever lost to him, and what
were capable of restoration—the old inquiry:
「I hope you care to be recalled to life?」
And the old answer:
「I can』t say.」
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BOOK THE SECOND
THE GOLDEN
THREAD
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Chapter VII
FIVE YEARS LATER
T ellson』s Bank by Temple Bar was an old-fashioned place,
even in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty.
It was very small, very dark, very ugly, very
incommodious. It was an old-fashioned place, moreover, in the
moral attribute that the partners in the House were proud of its
smallness, proud of its darkness, proud of its ugliness, proud of its
incommodiousness. They were even boastful of its eminence in
those particulars, and were fired by an express conviction that, if it
were less objectionable, it would be less respectable. This was no
passive belief, but an active weapon which they flashed at more
convenient places of business. Tellson』s (they said) wanted no
elbow-room, Tellson』s wanted no light, Tellson』s wanted no
embellishment. Noakes and Co.』s might, or Snooks Brothers』
might; but Tellson』s, thank Heaven!— Any one of these partners
would have disinherited his son on the question of rebuilding
Tellson』s. In this respect the House was much on a par with the
Country; which did very often disinherit its sons for suggesting
improvements in laws and customs that had long been highly
objectionable, but were only the more respectable.
Thus it had come to pass, that Tellson』s was the triumphant
perfection of inconvenience. After bursting open a door of idiotic
obstinacy with a weak rattle in its throat, you fell into Tellson』s
down two steps, and came to your senses in a miserable little shop,
with two little counters, where the oldest of men made your
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cheque shake as if the wind rustled it, while they examined the
signature by the dingiest of windows, which were always under a
shower-bath of mud from Fleet Street, and which were made the
dingier by their own iron bars proper, and the heavy shadow of
Temple Bar. If your business necessitated your seeing 「the
House,」 you were put into a species of Condemned Hold at the
back, where you meditated on a misspent life, until the House
came with its hands in its pockets, and you could hardly blink at it
in the dismal twilight. Your money came out of, or went into,
wormy old wooden drawers, particles of which flew up your nose
and down your throat when they were opened and shut. Your
banknotes had a musty odour, as if they were fast decomposing
into rags again. Your plate was stowed away among the
neighbouring cesspools, and evil communications corrupted its
good polish in a day or two. Your deeds got into extemporised
strong-rooms made of kitchens and sculleries, and fretted all the
fat out of their parchments into the banking-house air. Your
lighter boxes of family papers went upstairs into a Barmecide
room, that always had a great dining-table in it and never had a
dinner, and where, even in the year one thousand seven hundred
and eighty, the first letters written to you by your old love, or by
your little children, were but newly released from the horror of
being ogled through the windows, by the heads exposed on
Temple Bar with an insensate brutality and ferocity worthy of
Abyssinia or Ashantee.
But indeed, at that time, putting to death was a recipe much in
vogue with all trades and professions, and not least of all with
Tellson』s. Death is Nature』s remedy for all things, and why not
Legislation』s? Accordingly, the forger was put to Death; the
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utterer of a bad note was put to Death; the unlawful opener of a
letter was put to Death; the purloiner of forty shillings and
sixpence was put to Death; the holder of a horse at Tellson』s door,
who made off with it, was put to Death; the coiner of a bad shilling
was put to Death; the sounders of three-fourths of the notes in the
whole gamut of Crime, were put to Death. Not that it did the least
good in the way of prevention—it might almost have been worth
remarking that the fact was exactly the reverse—but, it cleared off
(as to this world) the trouble of each particular case, and left
nothing else connected with it to be looked after. Thus, Tellson』s,
in its day, like greater places of business, its contemporaries, had
taken so many lives, that, if the heads laid low before it had been
ranged on Temple Bar instead of being privately disposed of, they
would probably have excluded what little light the ground floor
had, in a rather significant manner.
Cramped in all kinds of dim cupboards and hutches at
Tellson』s, the oldest of men carried on the business gravely. When
they took a young man into Tellson』s London house, they hid him
somewhere till he was old. They kept him in a dark place, like a
cheese, until he had the full Tellson flavour and blue-mould upon
him. Then only was he permitted to be seen, spectacularly poring
over large books, and casting his breeches and gaiters into the
general weight of the establishment.
Outside Tellson』s—never by any means in it, unless called in—
was an odd-job-man, an occasional porter and messenger, who
served as the live sign of the house. He was never absent during
business hours, unless upon an errand, and then he was
represented by his son: a grisly urchin of twelve, who was his
express image. People understood that Tellson』s, in a stately way,
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tolerated the odd-job-man. The house had always tolerated some
person in that capacity, and time and tide had drifted this person
to the post. His surname was Cruncher, and on the youthful
occasion of his renouncing by proxy the works of darkness, in the
easterly parish church of Houndsditch, he had received the added
appellation of Jerry.
The scene was Mr. Cruncher』s private lodging in Hanging-
sword Alley, Whitefriars: the time, half-past seven of the clock and
a windy March morning, Anno Domini seventeen hundred and
eighty. (Mr. Cruncher himself always spoke of the year of our Lord
as Anna Dominoes: apparently under the impression that the
Christian era dated from the invention of a popular game, by a
lady who had bestowed her name upon it.) Mr. Cruncher』s
apartments were not in a savoury neighbourhood, and were but
two in number, even if a closet with a single pane of glass in it
might be counted as one. But they were very decently kept. Early
as it was, on the windy March morning, the room in which he lay
a-bed was already scrubbed throughout; and between the cups
and saucers arranged for breakfast, and the lumbering deal table,
a very clean white cloth was spread.
Mr. Cruncher reposed under a patchwork counterpane, like a
Harlequin at home. At first, he slept heavily, but, by degrees,
began to roll and surge in bed, until he rose above the surface,
with his spiky hair looking as if it must tear the sheets to ribbons.
At which juncture, he exclaimed, in a voice of dire exasperation:
「Bust me, if she ain』t at it agin!」
A woman of orderly and industrious appearance rose from her
knees in a corner, with sufficient haste and trepidation to show
that she was the person referred to.
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「What!」 said Mr. Cruncher, looking out of bed for a boot.
「You』re at it agin, are you?」
After hailing the morn with this second salutation, he threw a
boot at the woman as a third. It was a very muddy boot, and may
introduce the odd circumstance connected with Mr. Cruncher』s
domestic economy, that, whereas he often came home after
banking hours with clean boots, he often got up next morning to
find the same boots covered with clay.
「What,」 said Mr. Cruncher, varying his apostrophe after
missing his mark—「what are you up to, Aggerawayter?」
「I was only saying my prayers.」
「Saying your prayers! You』re a nice woman! What do you mean
by flopping yourself down and praying agin me?」
「I was not praying against you; I was praying for you.」
「You weren』t. And if you were, I won』t be took the liberty with.
Here! your mother』s a nice woman, young Jerry, going a praying
agin your father』s prosperity. You』ve got a dutiful mother, you
have, my son. You』ve got a religious mother, you have, my boy:
going and flopping herself down, and praying that the bread-andbutter may be snatched out of the mouth of her only child.」
Master Cruncher (who was in his shirt) took this very ill, and,
turning to his mother, strongly deprecated any praying away of his
personal board.
「And what do you suppose, you conceited female,」 said Mr.
Cruncher, with unconscious inconsistency, 「that the worth of your
prayers may be? Name the price that you put your prayers at!」
「They only come from the heart, Jerry. They are worth no more
than that.」
「Worth no more than that,」 repeated Mr. Cruncher. 「They ain』t
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worth much, then. Whether or no, I won』t be prayed agin, I tell
you. I can』t afford it. I』m not a going to be made unlucky by your
sneaking. If you must go flopping yourself down, flop in favour of
your husband and child, and not in opposition to 』em. If I had had
any but a unnat』ral wife, and this poor boy had had any but a
unnat』ral mother, I might have made some money last week
instead of being counterprayed and countermined and religiously
circumwented into the worst of luck. B-u-u-ust me!」 said Mr.
Cruncher, who all this time had been putting on his clothes, 「if I
ain』t, what with piety and one blowed thing and another, been
choused this last week into as bad luck as ever a poor devil of a
honest tradesman met with! Young Jerry, dress yourself, my boy,
and while I clean my boots keep an eye upon your mother now
and then, and if you see any signs of more flopping, give me a call.
For, I tell you,」 here he addressed his wife once more, 「I won』t be
gone agin, in this matter. I am as rickety as a hackney-coach, I』m
as sleepy as laudanum, my lines is strained to that degree that I
shouldn』t know, if it wasn』t for the pain in 』em, which was me and
which somebody else, yet I』m none the better for it in pocket; and
it』s my suspicion that you』ve been at it from morning to night to
prevent me from being the better for it in pocket, and I won』t put
up with it, Aggerawayter, and what do you say now!」
Growling, in addition, such phrases as 「Ah! yes! You』re
religious, too. You wouldn』t put yourself in opposition to the
interests of your husband and child, would you? Not you!」 and
throwing off other sarcastic sparks from the whirling grindstone of
his indignation, Mr. Cruncher betook himself to his boot-cleaning
and his general preparation for business. In the meantime, his son,
whose head was garnished with tenderer spikes, and whose young
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eyes stood close by one another, as his father』s did, kept the
required watch upon his mother. He greatly disturbed the poor
woman at intervals, by darting out of his sleeping closet, where he
made his toilet, with a suppressed cry of 「You are going to flop,
mother.—Halloa, father!」 and, after raising this fictitious alarm,
darting in again with an undutiful grin.
Mr. Cruncher』s temper was not at all improved when he came
to his breakfast. He resented Mrs. Cruncher』s saying grace with
particular animosity.
「Now, Aggerawayter! What are you up to? At it agin?」
His wife explained that she had merely 「asked a blessing.」
「Don』t do it!」 said Mr. Cruncher, looking about, as if he rather
expected to see the loaf disappear under the efficacy of his wife』s
petitions. 「I ain』t a going to be blest out of house and home. I won』t
have my wittles blest off my table. Keep still!」
Exceedingly red-eyed and grim, as if he had been up all night at
a party which had taken anything but a convivial turn, Jerry
Cruncher worried his breakfast rather than ate it, growling over it
like any four-footed inmate of a menagerie. Towards nine o』clock
he smoothed his ruffled aspect, and, presenting as respectable and
business-like an exterior as he could overlay his natural self with,
issued forth to the occupation of the day.
It could scarcely be called a trade, in spite of his favourite
description of himself as 「a honest tradesman.」 His stock
consisted of a wooden stool, made out of a broken-backed chair
cut down, which stool, young Jerry, walking at his father』s side,
carried every morning to beneath the banking-house window that
was nearest Temple Bar: where, with the addition of the first
handful of straw that could be gleaned from any passing vehicle to
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keep the cold and wet from the odd-job-man』s feet, it formed the
encampment for the day. On this post of his, Mr. Cruncher was as
well known to Fleet Street and the Temple, as the Bar itself,—and
was almost as ill-looking.
Encamped at a quarter before nine, in good time to touch his
three-cornered hat to the oldest of the men as they passed in to
Tellson』s, Jerry took up his station on this windy March morning,
with young Jerry standing by him, when not engaged in making
forays through the Bar, to inflict bodily and mental injuries of an
acute description on passing boys who were small enough for his
amiable purpose. Father and son, extremely like each other,
looking silently on at the morning traffic in Fleet Street, with their
two heads as near to one another as the two eyes of each were,
bore a considerable resemblance to a pair of monkeys. The
resemblance was not lessened by the accidental circumstance,
that the mature Jerry bit and spat out straw, while the twinkling
eyes of the youthful Jerry were as restlessly watchful of him as of
everything else in Fleet Street. The head of one of the regular
indoor messengers attached to Tellson』s establishment was put
through the door, and the word was given:
「Porter wanted!」
「Hooray, father! Here』s an early job to begin with!」
Having thus given his parent God speed, young Jerry seated
himself on the stool, entered on his reversionary interest in the
straw his father had been chewing, and cogitated.
「Always rusty! His fingers is always rusty!」 muttered young
Jerry. 「Where does my father get all that iron rust from? He don』t
get no iron rust here!」
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
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Chapter VIII
A SIGHT
「Y ou know the Old Bailey well, no doubt?」 said one of
the oldest of clerks to Jerry the messenger.
「Ye-es, sir,」 returned Jerry, in something of a
dogged manner. 「I do know the Bailey.」
「Just so. And you know Mr. Lorry.」
「I know Mr. Lorry, sir, much better than I know the Bailey.
Much better,」 said Jerry, not unlike a reluctant witness at the
establishment in question, 「than I, as a honest tradesman, wish to
know the Bailey.」
「Very well. Find the door where the witnesses go in, and show
the door-keeper this note for Mr. Lorry. He will then let you in.」
「Into the court, sir?」
「Into the court.」
Mr. Cruncher』s eyes seemed to get a little closer to one another,
and to interchange the inquiry, 「What do you think of this?」
「Am I to wait in the court, sir?」 he asked, as the result of that
conference.
「I am going to tell you. The door-keeper will pass the note to
Mr. Lorry, and do you make any gesture that will attract Mr.
Lorry』s attention, and show him where you stand. Then what you
have to do is, to remain there until he wants you.」
「Is that all, sir?」
「That is all. He wishes to have a messenger at hand. This is to
tell him you are there.」
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As the ancient clerk deliberately folded and superscribed the
note, Mr. Cruncher, after surveying him in silence until he came to
the blotting-paper stage, remarked:
「I suppose they』ll be trying Forgeries this morning?」
「Treason!」
「That』s quartering,」 said Jerry. 「Barbarous!」
「It is the law,」 remarked the ancient clerk, turning his
surprised spectacles upon him. 「It is the law.」
「It』s hard in the law to spile a man, I think. It』s hard enough to
kill him, but it』s werry hard to spile him, sir.」
「Not at all,」 returned the ancient clerk. 「Speak well of the law.
Take care of your chest and voice, my good friend, and leave the
law to take care of itself. I give you that advice.」
「It』s the damp, sir, what settles on my chest and voice,」 said
Jerry. 「I leave you to judge what a damp way of earning a living
mine is.」
「Well, well,」 said the old clerk; 「we all have our various ways of
gaining a livelihood. Some of us have damp ways, and some of us
have dry ways. Here is the letter. Go along.」
Jerry took the letter, and, remarking to himself with less
internal deference than he made an outward show of, 「You are a
lean old one, too,」 made his bow, informed his son, in passing, of
his destination, and went his way.
They hanged at Tyburn in those days, so the street outside
Newgate had not obtained one infamous notoriety that has since
attached to it. But, the gaol was a vile place, in which most kinds of
debauchery and villainy were practised, and where dire diseases
were bred, that came into court with the prisoners, and sometimes
rushed straight from the dock at my Lord Chief Justice himself,
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and pulled him off the bench. It had more than once happened,
that the Judge in the black cap pronounced his own doom as
certainly as the prisoner』s, and even died before him. For the rest,
the Old Bailey was famous as a kind of deadly inn-yard, from
which pale travellers set out continually, in carts and coaches, on a
violent passage into the other world: traversing some two miles
and a half of public street and road, and shaming few good
citizens, if any. So powerful is use, and so desirable to be good use
in the beginning. It was famous, too, for the pillory, a wise old
institution, that inflicted a punishment of which no one could
foresee the extent; also, for the whipping-post, another dear old
institution, very humanising and softening to behold in action;
also, for extensive transactions in blood-money, another fragment
of ancestral wisdom, systematically leading to the most frightful
mercenary crimes that could be committed under Heaven.
Altogether, the Old Bailey, at that date, was a choice illustration of
the precept that 「Whatever is, is right」; an aphorism that would be
as final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome
consequence, that nothing that ever was, was wrong.
Making his way through the tainted crowd, dispersed up and
down this hideous scene of action, with the skill of a man
accustomed to make his way quietly, the messenger found out the
door he sought, and handed in his letter through a trap in it. For,
people then paid to see the play at the Old Bailey, just as they paid
to see the play in Bedlam—only the former entertainment was
much the dearer. Therefore, all the Old Bailey doors were well
guarded—except, indeed, the social doors by which the criminals
got there, and those were always left wide open.
After some delay and demur, the door grudgingly turned on its
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hinges a very little way, and allowed Mr. Jerry Cruncher to
squeeze himself into court.
「What』s on?」 he asked, in a whisper, of the man he found
himself next to.
「Nothing yet.」
「What』s coming on?」
「The Treason case.」
「The quartering one, eh?」
「Ah!」 returned the man, with a relish; 「he』ll be drawn on a
hurdle to be half hanged, and then he』ll be taken down and sliced
before his own face, and then his inside will be taken out and
burnt while he looks on, and then his head will be chopped off,
and he』ll be cut into quarters. That』s the sentence.」
「If he』s found Guilty, you mean to say?」 Jerry added, by way of
proviso.
「Oh! they』ll find him guilty,」 said the other. 「Don』t you be
afraid of that.」
Mr. Cruncher』s attention was here diverted to the door-keeper,
whom he saw making his way to Mr. Lorry, with the note in his
hand. Mr. Lorry sat at a table, among the gentlemen in wigs: not
far from a wigged gentleman, the prisoner』s counsel, who had a
great bundle of papers before him: and nearly opposite another
wigged gentleman with his hands in his pockets, whose whole
attention, when Mr. Cruncher looked at him then or afterwards,
seemed to be concentrated on the ceiling of the court. After some
gruff coughing and rubbing of his chin and signing with his hand,
Jerry attracted the notice of Mr. Lorry, who had stood up to look
for him, and who quietly nodded and sat down again.
「What』s he got to do with the case?」 asked the man he had
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spoken with.
「Blest if I know,」 said Jerry.
「What have you got to do with it, then, if a person may
inquire?」
「Blest if I know that either,」 said Jerry.
The entrance of the Judge, and a consequent great stir and
settling down in the court, stopped the dialogue. Presently, the
dock became the central point of interest. Two gaolers, who had
been standing there, went out, and the prisoner was brought in,
and put to the bar.
Everybody present, except the one wigged gentleman who
looked at the ceiling, stared at him. All the human breath in the
place, rolled at him, like a sea, or a wind, or a fire. Eager faces
strained round pillars and corners, to get a sight of him; spectators
in back rows stood up, not to miss a hair of him; people on the
floor of the court, laid their hands on the shoulders of the people
before them, to help themselves, at anybody』s cost, to a view of
him, stood a-tiptoe, got upon ledges, stood upon next to nothing, to
see every inch of him. Conspicuous among these latter, like an
animated bit of the spiked wall of Newgate, Jerry stood: aiming at
the prisoner the beery breath of a whet he had taken as he came
along, and discharging it to mingle with the waves of other beer,
and gin, and tea, and coffee, and what not, that flowed at him, and
already broke upon the great windows behind him in an impure
mist and rain.
The object of all this staring and blaring, was a young man of
about five and twenty, well-grown and well-looking, with a
sunburnt cheek and a dark eye. His condition was that of a young
gentleman. He was plainly dressed in black, or very dark grey, and
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his hair, which was long and dark, was gathered in a ribbon at the
back of his neck; more to be out of his way than for ornament. As
an emotion of the mind will express itself through any covering of
the body, so the paleness which his situation engendered came
through the brown upon his cheek, showing the soul to be
stronger than the sun. He was otherwise quite self-possessed,
bowed to the Judge, and stood quiet.
The sort of interest with which this man was stared and
breathed at, was not a sort that elevated humanity. Had he stood
in peril of a less horrible sentence—had there been a chance of
any one of its savage details being spared—by just so much would
he have lost in his fascination. The form that was to be doomed to
be so shamefully mangled, was the sight; the immortal creature
that was to be so butchered and torn asunder, yielded the
sensation. Whatever gloss the various spectators put upon the
interest, according to their several arts and powers of self-deceit,
the interest was, at the root of it, Ogreish.
Silence in the court! Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded Not
Guilty to an indictment denouncing him (with infinite jingle and
jangle) for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious,
excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his
having, on divers occasions, and by divers means and ways,
assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said
serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth; that was to say, by
coming and going, between the dominions of our said serene,
illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the said French
Lewis, and wickedly, falsely, traitorously, and otherwise eviladverbiously, revealing to the said French Lewis what forces our
said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, had in preparation
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to send to Canada and North America. This much, Jerry, with his
head becoming more and more spiky as the law terms bristled it,
made out with huge satisfaction, and so arrived circuitously at the
understanding that the aforesaid, and over and over again
aforesaid, Charles Darnay, stood there before him upon his trial;
that the jury were swearing in; and that Mr. Attorney-General was
making ready to speak.
The accused, who was (and who knew he was) being mentally
hanged, beheaded, and quartered, by everybody there, neither
flinched from the situation, nor assumed any theatrical air in it. He
was quiet and attentive; watched the opening proceedings with a
grave interest; and stood with his hands resting on the slab of
wood before him, so composedly, that they had not displaced a leaf
of the herbs with which it was strewn. The court was all bestrewn
with herbs and sprinkled with vinegar, as a precaution against
gaol air and gaol fever.
Over the prisoner』s head there was a mirror, to throw the light
down upon him. Crowds of the wicked and the wretched had been
reflected in it, and had passed from its surface and this earth』s
together. Haunted in a most ghastly manner that abominable
place would have been, if the glass could ever have rendered back
its reflections, as the ocean is one day to give up its dead. Some
passing thought of the infamy and disgrace for which it had been
reserved, may have struck the prisoner』s mind. Be that as it may, a
change in his position making him conscious of a bar of light
across his face, he looked up; and when he saw the glass his face
flushed, and his right hand pushed the herbs away.
It happened that the action turned his face to that side of the
court which was on his left. About on a level with his eyes, there
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sat, in that corner of the Judge』s bench, two persons upon whom
his look immediately rested; so immediately, and so much to the
changing of his aspect, that all the eyes that were turned upon
him, turned to them.
The spectators saw in the two figures, a young lady of little
more than twenty, and a gentleman who was evidently her father;
a man of a very remarkable appearance in respect of the absolute
whiteness of his hair, and a certain indescribable intensity of face:
not of an active kind, but pondering and self-communing. When
this expression was upon him, he looked as if he were old; but
when it was stirred and broken up—as it was now, in a moment,
on his speaking to his daughter—he became a handsome man, not
past the prime of life.
His daughter had one of her hands drawn through his arm, as
she sat by him, and the other pressed upon it. She had drawn
close to him, in her dread of the scene, and in her pity for the
prisoner. Her forehead had been strikingly expressive of an
engrossing terror and compassion that saw nothing but the peril of
the accused. This had been so very noticeable, so very powerfully
and naturally shown, that starers who had had no pity for him
were touched by her; and the whisper went about, 「Who are
they?」
Jerry, the messenger, who had made his own observations, in
his own manner, and who had been sucking the rust off his fingers
in his absorption, stretched his neck to hear who they were. The
crowd about him had pressed and passed the inquiry on to the
nearest attendant, and from him it had been more slowly pressed
and passed back; at last it got to Jerry:
「Witnesses.」
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「For which side?」
「Against.」
「Against what side?」
「The prisoner』s.」
The Judge, whose eyes had gone in the general direction,
recalled them, leaned back in his seat, and looked steadily at the
man whose life was in his hand, as Mr. Attorney-General rose to
spin the rope, grind the axe, and hammer the nails into the
scaffold.
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Chapter IX
A DISSAPOINTMENT
Mr. Attorney-General had to inform the jury, that the
prisoner before them, though young in years, was old in
the treasonable practices which claimed the forfeit of
his life. That this correspondence with the public enemy was not a
correspondence of today, or of yesterday, or even of last year, or of
the year before. That, it was certain the prisoner had, for longer
than that, been in the habit of passing and re-passing between
France and England, on secret business of which he could give no
honest account. That, if it were in the nature of traitorous ways to
thrive (which happily it never was), the real wickedness and guilt
of his business might have remained undiscovered. That
Providence, however, had put it into the heart of a person who
was beyond fear and beyond reproach, to ferret out the nature of
the prisoner』s schemes, and, struck with horror, to disclose them
to his Majesty』s Chief Secretary of State and most honourable
Privy Council. That, this patriot would be produced before them.
That, his position and attitude were, on the whole, sublime. That,
he had been the prisoner』s friend, but, at once in an auspicious
and an evil hour detecting his infamy, had resolved to immolate
the traitor he could no longer cherish in his bosom, on the sacred
altar of his country. That, if statues were decreed in Britain, as in
ancient Greece and Rome, to public benefactors, this shining
citizen would assuredly have had one. That, as they were not so
decreed, he probably would not have one. That, Virtue, as had
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been observed by the poets (in many passages which he well knew
the jury would have, word for word, at the tips of their tongues;
whereat the jury』s countenances displayed a guilty consciousness
that they knew nothing about the passages), was in a manner
contagious; more especially the bright virtue known as patriotism,
or love of country. That, the lofty example of this immaculate and
unimpeachable witness for the Crown to refer to whom however
unworthily was an honour, had communicated itself to the
prisoner』s servant, and had engendered in him a holy
determination to examine his master』s table-drawers and pockets,
and secrete his papers. That, he (Mr. Attorney-General) was
prepared to hear some disparagement attempted of this admirable
servant; but that, in a general way, he preferred him to his (Mr.
Attorney-General』s) brothers and sisters, and honoured him more
than his (Mr. Attorney-General』s) father and mother. That, he
called with confidence on the jury to come and do likewise. That,
the evidence of these two witnesses, coupled with the documents
of their discovering that would be produced, would show the
prisoner to have been furnished with lists of his Majesty』s forces,
and of their disposition and preparation, both by sea and land, and
would leave no doubt that he had habitually conveyed such
information to a hostile power. That, these lists could not be
proved to be in the prisoner』s handwriting; but that it was all the
same; that, indeed, it was rather the better for the prosecution, as
showing the prisoner to be artful in his precautions. That, the
proof would go back five years, and would show the prisoner
already engaged in these pernicious missions within a few weeks
before the date of the very first action fought between the British
troops and the Americans. That, for these reasons, the jury, being
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a loyal jury (as he knew they were), and being a responsible jury
(as they knew they were), must positively find the prisoner Guilty,
and make an end of him, whether they liked it or not. That, they
never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that, they never
could tolerate the idea of their wives laying their heads upon their
pillows; that, they could never endure the notion of their children
laying their heads upon their pillows; in short, that there never
more could be, for them or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows
at all, unless the prisoner』s head was taken off. That head Mr.
Attorney-General concluded by demanding of them, in the name
of everything he could think of with a round turn in it, and on the
faith of his solemn asseveration that he already considered the
prisoner as good as dead and gone.
When the Attorney-General ceased, a buzz arose in the court as
if a cloud of great blue-flies were swarming about the prisoner, in
anticipation of what he was soon to become. When toned down
again, the unimpeachable patriot appeared in the witness-box.
Mr. Solicitor-General then, following his leader』s lead,
examined the patriot: John Barsad, gentleman, by name. The
story of his pure soul was exactly what Mr. Attorney-General had
described it to be—perhaps, if it had a fault, a little too exactly.
Having released his noble bosom of its burden, he would have
modestly withdrawn himself, but that the wigged gentleman with
the papers before him, sitting not far from Mr. Lorry, begged to
ask him a few questions. The wigged gentleman sitting opposite,
still looking at the ceiling of the court.
Had he ever been a spy himself? No, he scorned the base
insinuation. What did he live upon? His property. Where was his
property? He didn』t precisely remember where it was. What was
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it? No business of anybody』s. Had he inherited it? Yes, he had.
From whom? Distant relatives. Very distant? Rather. Ever been in
prison? Certainly not. Never in a debtor』s prison? Didn』t see what
that had to do with it. Never in a debtor』s prison?—Come, once
again. Never? Yes. How many times? Two or three times. Not five
or six? Perhaps. Of what profession? Gentleman. Ever been
kicked? Might have been. Frequently? No. Ever kicked
downstairs? Decidedly not; once received a kick on the top of the
staircase and fell downstairs of his own accord. Kicked on that
occasion for cheating at dice? Something to that effect was said by
the intoxicated liar who committed the assault, but it was not true.
Swear it was not true? Positively. Ever live by cheating at play?
Never. Ever live by play? Not more than other gentlemen do. Ever
borrow money of the prisoner? Yes. Ever pay him? No. Was not
this intimacy with the prisoner, in reality a very slight one, forced
upon the prisoner in coaches, inns, and packets? No. Sure he saw
the prisoner with these lists? Certain. Knew no more about the
lists? No. Had not procured them himself, for instance? No.
Expect to get anything by this evidence? No. Not in regular
government pay and employment, to lay traps? Oh dear no. Or to
do anything? Oh dear no. Swear that? Over and again. No motives
but motives of sheer patriotism? None whatever.
The virtuous servant, Roger Cly, swore his way through the
case at a great rate. He had taken service with the prisoner, in
good faith and simplicity, four years ago. He had asked the
prisoner, aboard the Calais packet, if he wanted a handy fellow,
and the prisoner had engaged him. He had not asked the prisoner
to take the handy fellow as an act of charity—never thought of
such a thing. He began to have suspicions of the prisoner, and to
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keep an eye upon him, soon afterwards. In arranging his clothes,
while travelling, he had seen similar lists in the prisoner』s pockets,
over and over again. He had taken these lists from the drawer of
the prisoner』s desk. He had not put them there first. He had seen
the prisoner show these identical lists to French gentlemen at
Calais, and similar lists to French gentlemen, both at Calais and
Boulogne. He loved his country, and couldn』t bear it, and had
given information. He had never been suspected of stealing a
silver teapot; he had been maligned respecting a mustard-pot, but
it turned out to be only a plated one. He had known the last
witness seven or eight years; that was merely a coincidence. He
didn』t call it a particularly curious coincidence; most coincidences
were curious. Neither did he call it a curious coincidence that true
patriotism was his only motive too. He was a true Briton, and
hoped there were many like him.
The blue-flies buzzed again, and Mr. Attorney-General called
Mr. Jarvis Lorry.
「Mr. Jarvis Lorry, are you a clerk in Tellson』s Bank?
「I am.」
「On a certain Friday night in November one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-five, did business occasion you to travel
between London and Dover by the mail?」
「It did.」
「Were there any other passengers in the mail?」
「Two.」
「Did they alight on the road in the course of the night?」
「They did.」
「Mr. Lorry, look upon the prisoner. Was he one of those two
passengers?」
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「I cannot undertake to say that he was.」
「Does he resemble either of those two passengers?」
「Both were so wrapped up, and the night was so dark, and we
were all so reserved, that I cannot undertake to say even that.」
「Mr. Lorry, look again upon the prisoner. Supposing him
wrapped up as those two passengers were, is there anything in his
bulk and stature to render it unlikely that he was one of them?」
「No.」
「You will not swear, Mr. Lorry, that he was not one of them?」
「No.」
「So at least you say that he may have been one of them?」
「Yes. Except that I remember them both to have been—like
myself—timorous of highwaymen, and the prisoner has not a
timorous air.」
「Did you ever see a counterfeit of timidity, Mr. Lorry?」
「I certainly have seen that.」
「Mr. Lorry, look once more upon the prisoner. Have you seen
him, to your certain knowledge, before?」
「I have.」
「When?」
「I was returning from France a few days afterwards, and, at
Calais, the prisoner came on board the packet-ship in which I
returned, and made the voyage with me.」
「At what hour did he come on board?」
「At a little after midnight.」
「In the dead of the night. Was he the only passenger who came
on board at that untimely hour?」
「He happened to be the only one.」
「Never mind about 『happening』, Mr. Lorry. He was the only
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passenger who came on board in the dead of the night?」
「He was.」
「Were you travelling alone, Mr. Lorry, or with any
companion?」
「With two companions. A gentleman and lady. They are here.」
「They are here. Had you any conversation with the prisoner?」
「Hardly any. The weather was stormy, and the passage long
and rough, and I lay on a sofa, almost from shore to shore.」
「Miss Manette!」
The young lady, to whom all eyes had been turned before, and
were now turned again, stood up where she had sat. Her father
rose with her, and kept her hand drawn through his arm.
「Miss Manette, look upon the prisoner.」
To be confronted with such pity, and such earnest youth and
beauty, was far more trying to the accused than to be confronted
with all the crowd. Standing, as it were, apart with her on the edge
of his grave, not all the staring curiosity that looked on, could, for
the moment, nerve him to remain quite still. His hurried right
hand parcelled out the herbs before him into imaginary beds of
flowers in a garden; and his efforts to control and steady his
breathing shook the lips from which the colour rushed to his
heart. The buzz of the great flies was loud again.
「Miss Manette, have you seen the prisoner before?」
「Yes, sir.」
「Where?」
「On board of the packet-ship just now referred to, sir, and on
the same occasion.」
「You are the young lady just now referred to?」
「O! most unhappily, I am!」
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The plaintive tone of her compassion merged into the less
musical voice of the Judge, as he said something fiercely: 「Answer
the questions put to you, and make no remark upon them.」
「Miss Manette, had you any conversation with the prisoner on
that passage across the Channel?」
「Yes, sir.」
「Recall it.」
In the midst of a profound stillness, she faintly began: 「When
the gentleman came on board—」
「Do you mean the prisoner?」 inquired the Judge, knitting his
brows.
「Yes, my Lord.」
「Then say the prisoner.」
「When the prisoner came on board, he noticed that my father,」
turning her eyes lovingly to him as he stood beside her, 「was
much fatigued and in a very weak state of health. My father was so
reduced that I was afraid to take him out of the air, and I had
made a bed for him on the deck near the cabin steps, and I sat on
the deck at his side to take care of him. There were no other
passengers that night, but we four. The prisoner was so good as to
beg permission to advise me how I could shelter my father from
the wind and weather, better than I had done. I had not known
how to do it well, not understanding how the wind would set when
we were out of the harbour. He did it for me. He expressed great
gentleness and kindness for my father』s state, and I am sure he felt
it. That was the manner of our beginning to speak together.」
「Let me interrupt you for a moment. Had he come on board
alone?」
「No.」
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「How many were with him?」
「Two French gentlemen.」
「Had they conferred together?」
「They had conferred together until the last moment, when it
was necessary for the French gentlemen to be landed in their
boat.」
「Had any papers been handed about among them, similar to
these lists?」
「Some papers had been handed about among them, but I don』t
know what papers.」
「Like these in shape and size?」
「Possibly, but indeed I don』t know, although they stood
whispering very near to me: because they stood at the top of the
cabin steps to have the light of the lamp that was hanging there; it
was a dull lamp, and they spoke very low, and I did not hear what
they said, and saw only that they looked at papers.」
「Now, to the prisoner』s conversation, Miss Manette.」
「The prisoner was as open in his confidence with me—which
arose out of my helpless situation—as he was kind, and good, and
useful to my father. I hope,」 bursting into tears, 「I may not repay
him by doing him harm today.」
Buzzing from the blue-flies.
「Miss Manette, if the prisoner does not perfectly understand
that you give the evidence which it is your duty to give—which you
must give—and which you cannot escape from giving—with great
unwillingness, he is the only person present in that condition.
Please to go on.」
「He told me that he was travelling on business of a delicate and
difficult nature, which might get people into trouble, and that he
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was therefore travelling under an assumed name. He said that this
business had, within a few days, taken him to France, and might,
at intervals, take him backwards and forwards between France
and England for a long time to come.」
「Did he say anything about America, Miss Manette? Be
particular.」
「He tried to explain to me how that quarrel had arisen, and he
said that, so far as he could judge, it was a wrong and foolish one
on England』s part. He added, in a jesting way, that perhaps
George Washington might gain almost as great a name in history
as George the Third. But there was no harm in his way of saying
this: it was said laughingly, and to beguile the time.」
Any strongly marked expression of face on the part of a chief
actor in a scene of great interest to whom many eyes are directed,
will be unconsciously imitated by the spectators. Her forehead was
painfully anxious and intent as she gave this evidence, and, in the
pauses when she stopped for the judge to write it down, watched
its effect upon the counsel for and against. Among the lookers-on
there was the same expression in all quarters of the court;
insomuch, that a great majority of the foreheads there, might have
been mirrors reflecting the witness, when the Judge looked up
from his notes to glare at that tremendous heresy about George
Washington.
Mr. Attorney-General now signified to my Lord, that he deemed
it necessary, as a matter of precaution and form, to call the young
lady』s father, Doctor Manette. Who was called accordingly.
「Doctor Manette, look upon the prisoner. Have you ever seen
him before?」
「Once. When he called at my lodgings in London. Some three
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years, or three years and a half ago.」
「Can you identify him as your fellow-passenger on board the
packet, or speak to his conversation with your daughter?」
「Sir, I can do neither.」
「Is there any particular and special reason for your being
unable to do either?」
He answered, in a low voice, 「There is.」
「Has it been your misfortune to undergo a long imprisonment,
without trial, or even accusation, in your native country, Doctor
Manette?」
He answered, in a tone that went to every heart, 「A long
imprisonment.」
「Were you newly released on the occasion in question?」
「They tell me so.」
「Have you no remembrance of the occasion?」
「None. My mind is a blank, from some time—I cannot even say
what time—when I employed myself, in my captivity, in making
shoes, to the time when I found myself living in London with my
dear daughter here. She had become familiar to me, when a
gracious God restored my faculties; but, I am unable to say how
she had become familiar. I have no remembrance of the process.」
Mr. Attorney-General sat down, and the father and daughter sat
down together.
A singular circumstance then arose in the case. The object in
hand being to show that the prisoner went down, with some
fellow-plotter untracked, in the Dover mail on that Friday night in
November five years ago, and got out of the mail in the night, as a
blind, at a place where he did not remain, but from which he
travelled back some dozen miles or more, to a garrison and
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dockyard, and there collected information; a witness was called to
identify him as having been at the precise time required, in the
coffee-room of an hotel, in that garrison-and-dockyard town,
waiting for another person. The prisoner』s counsel was cross-
examining this witness with no result, except that he had never
seen the prisoner on any other occasion, when the wigged
gentleman who had all this time been looking at the ceiling of the
court, wrote a word or two on a little piece of paper, screwed it up,
and tossed it to him. Opening this piece of paper in the next pause,
the counsel looked with great attention and curiosity at the
prisoner.
「You say again you are quite sure that it was the prisoner?」
The witness was quite sure.
「Did you ever see anybody very like the prisoner?」
Not so like (the witness said) as that he could be mistaken.
「Look well upon that gentleman, my learned friend there,」
pointing to him who had tossed the paper over, 「and then look
well upon the prisoner. How say you? Are they very like each
other?」
Allowing for my learned friend』s appearance being careless and
slovenly if not debauched, they were sufficiently like each other to
surprise, not only the witness, but everybody present, when they
were thus brought into comparison. My Lord being prayed to bid
my learned friend lay aside his wig, and giving no very gracious
consent, the likeness became much more remarkable. My Lord
inquired of Mr. Stryver (the prisoner』s counsel), whether they
were next to try Mr. Carton (name of my learned friend) for
treason? But, Mr. Stryver replied to my Lord, no; but he would
ask the witness to tell him whether what happened once, might
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happen twice; whether he would have been so confident if he had
seen this illustration of his rashness sooner, whether he would be
so confident, having seen it; and more. The upshot of which, was,
to smash this witness like a crockery vessel, and shiver his part of
the case to useless lumber.
Mr. Cruncher had by this time taken quite a lunch of rust off his
fingers in his following of the evidence. He had now to attend
while Mr. Stryver fitted the prisoner』s case on the jury, like a
compact suit of clothes; showing them how the patriot, Barsad,
was a hired spy and traitor, an unblushing trafficker in blood, and
one of the greatest scoundrels upon earth since accursed Judas—
which he certainly did look rather like. How the virtuous servant,
Cly, was his friend and partner, and was worthy to be; how, the
watchful eyes of those forgers and false swearers had rested on the
prisoner as a victim, because some family affairs in France, he
being of French extraction, did require him making those
passages across the Channel—though what those affairs were, a
consideration for others who were near and dear to him, forbade
him, even for his life, to disclose. How the evidence that had been
warped and wrested from the young lady, whose anguish in giving
it they had witnessed, came to nothing, involving the mere little
innocent gallantries and politeness likely to pass between any
young gentleman and young lady so thrown together;—with the
exception of that reference to George Washington, which was
altogether too extravagant and impossible to be regarded in any
other light than as a monstrous joke. How it would be a weakness
in the government to break down in this attempt to practise for
popularity on the lowest national antipathies and fears, and
therefore Mr. Attorney-General had made the most of it; how,
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nevertheless, it rested upon nothing, save that vile and infamous
character of evidence too often disfiguring such cases, and of
which the State Trials of this country were full. But, there my
Lord interposed (with as grave a face as if it had not been true),
saying that he could not sit upon that Bench and suffer those
allusions.
Mr. Stryver then called his few witnesses, and Mr. Cruncher
had next to attend while Mr. Attorney-General turned the whole
suit of clothes Mr. Stryver had fitted on the jury, inside out:
showing how Barsad and Cly were even a hundred times better
than he had thought them, and the prisoner a hundred times
worse. Lastly, came my Lord himself, turning the suit of clothes,
now inside out, now outside in, but on the whole decidedly
trimming and shaping them into grave-clothes for the prisoner.
And now, the jury turned to consider, and the great flies
swarmed again.
Mr. Carton, who had so long sat looking at the ceiling of the
court, changed neither his place nor his attitude, even in this
excitement. While his learned friend, Mr. Stryver, massing his
papers before him, whispered with those who sat near, and from
time to time glanced anxiously at the jury; while all the spectators
moved more or less, and grouped themselves anew; while even my
Lord himself arose from his seat, and slowly paced up and down
his platform, not unattended by a suspicion in the minds of the
audience that his state was feverish; this one man sat leaning
back, with his torn gown half off him, his untidy wig put on just as
it happened to light on his head after its removal, his hands in his
pockets, and his eyes on the ceiling as they had been all day.
Something especially reckless in his demeanour, not only gave
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him a disreputable look, but so diminished the strong resemblance
he undoubtedly bore to the prisoner (which his momentary
earnestness, when they were compared together, had
strengthened), that many of the lookers-on, taking note of him
now, said to one another they would hardly have thought the two
were so alike. Mr. Cruncher made the observation to his next
neighbour, and added, 「I』d hold a half a guinea that he don』t get no
law-work to do. Don』t look like the sort of one to get any, do he?」
Yet, this Mr. Carton took in more of the details of the scene
than he appeared to take in; for now, when Miss Manette』s head
dropped upon her father』s breast, he was the first to see it, and to
say audibly: 「Officer! look to that young lady. Help the gentleman
to take her out. Don』t you see she will fall!」
There was much commiseration for her as she was removed,
and much sympathy with her father. It had evidently been a great
distress to him, to have the days of his imprisonment recalled. He
had shown strong internal agitation when he was questioned, and
that pondering or brooding look which made him old, had been
upon him, like a heavy cloud, ever since. As he passed out, the
jury, who had turned back and paused a moment, spoke, through
their foreman.
They were not agreed, and wished to retire. My Lord (perhaps
with George Washington on his mind) showed some surprise that
they were not agreed, but signified his pleasure that they should
retire under watch and ward, and retired himself. The trial had
lasted all day, and the lamps in the court were now being lighted.
It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while.
The spectators dropped off to get refreshment, and the prisoner
withdrew to the back of the dock, and sat down.
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Mr. Lorry, who had gone out when the young lady and her
father went out, now reappeared, and beckoned to Jerry: who, in
the slackened interest, could easily get near him.
「Jerry, if you wish to take something to eat, you can. But, keep
in the way. You will be sure to hear when the jury come in. Don』t
be a moment behind them, for I want you to take the verdict back
to the bank. You are the quickest messenger I know, and you will
get to Temple Bar long before I can.」
Jerry had just enough forehead to knuckle, and he knuckled it
in acknowledgment of this communication and a shilling. Mr.
Carton came up at the moment, and touched Mr. Lorry on the
arm.
「How is the young lady?」
「She is greatly distressed; but her father is comforting her, and
she feels the better for being out of court.」
「I』ll tell the prisoner so. It won』t do for a respectable bank
gentleman like you to be seen speaking to him publicly, you
know.」
Mr. Lorry reddened as if he were conscious of having debated
the point in his mind, and Mr. Carton made his way to the outside
of the bar. The way out of court lay in that direction, and Jerry
followed him, all eyes, ears, and spikes.
「Mr. Darnay!」
The prisoner came forward directly.
「You will naturally be anxious to hear of the witness, Miss
Manette. She will do very well. You have seen the worst of her
agitation.」
「I am deeply sorry to have been the cause of it. Could you tell
her so for me, with my fervent acknowledgments?」
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「Yes, I could. I will, if you ask it.」
Mr. Carton』s manner was so careless as to be almost insolent.
He stood, half turned from the prisoner, lounging with his elbow
against the bar.
「I do ask it. Accept my cordial thanks.」
「What,」 said Carton, still only half turned towards him, 「do you
expect, Mr. Darnay?」
「The worst.」
「It』s the wisest thing to expect, and the likeliest. But I think
their withdrawing is in your favour.」
Loitering on the way out of court not being allowed, Jerry
heard no more: but left them—so like each other in feature, so
unlike each other in manner—standing side by side, both reflected
in the glass above them.
An hour and a half limped heavily away in the thief-and-rascal
crowded passages below, even though assisted off with mutton
pies and ale. The hoarse messenger, uncomfortably seated on a
form after taking that refection, had dropped into a doze, when a
loud murmur and a rapid tide of people setting up the stairs that
led to the court, carried him along with them.
「Jerry! Jerry!」 Mr. Lorry was already calling at the door when
he got there.
「Here, sir! It』s a fight to get back again. Here I am, sir!」
Mr. Lorry handed him a paper through the throng. 「Quick!
Have you got it?」
「Yes, sir!」
Hastily written on the paper was the word 「ACQUITTED.」
「If you had sent the message, 『Recalled to Life,』 again,」
muttered Jerry, as he turned, 「I should have known what you
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meant, this time.」
He had no opportunity of saying, or so much as thinking,
anything else, until he was clear of the Old Bailey; for, the crowd
came pouring out with a vehemence that nearly took him off his
legs, and a loud buzz swept into the street as if the baffled blue-
flies were dispersing in search of other carrion.
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Chapter X
CONGRATULATORY
F rom the dimly-lighted passages of the court, the last
sediment of the human stew that had been boiling there all
day, was straining off, when Doctor Manette, Lucie
Manette, his daughter, Mr. Lorry, the solicitor for the defence, and
its counsel, Mr. Stryver, stood gathered round Mr. Charles
Darnay—just released—congratulating him on his escape from
death.
It would have been difficult by a far brighter light, to recognize
in Doctor Manette, intellectual of face and upright of bearing, the
shoemaker of the garret in Paris. Yet, no one could have looked at
him twice, without looking again: even though the opportunity of
observation had not extended to the mournful cadence of his low
grave voice, and to the abstraction that overclouded him fitfully,
without any apparent reason. While one external cause, and that a
reference to his long lingering agony, would always—as on the
trial—evoke this condition from the depths of his soul, it was also
in its nature to arise of itself, and to draw a gloom over him, as
incomprehensible to those unacquainted with his story as if they
had seen the shadow of the actual Bastille thrown upon him by a
summer sun, when the substance was three hundred miles away.
Only his daughter had the power of charming this black
brooding from his mind. She was the golden thread that united
him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his
misery: and the sound of her voice, the light of her face, the touch
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of her hand, had a strong beneficial influence with him almost
always. Not absolutely always, for she could recall some occasions
on which her power had failed; but they were few and slight, and
she believed them over.
Mr. Darnay had kissed her hand fervently and gratefully, and
had turned to Mr. Stryver, whom he warmly thanked. Mr. Stryver,
a man of little more than thirty, but looking twenty years older
than he was, stout, loud, red, bluff, and free from any drawback of
delicacy, had a pushing way of shouldering himself (morally and
physically) into companies and conversations, that argued well for
his shouldering his way up in life.
He still had his wig and gown on, and he said, squaring himself
at his late client to that degree that he squeezed the innocent Mr.
Lorry clean out of the group: 「I am glad to have brought you off
with honour, Mr. Darnay. It was an infamous prosecution, grossly
infamous; but not the less likely to succeed on that account.」
「You have laid me under an obligation to you for life—in two
senses,」 said his late client, taking his hand.
「I have done my best for you, Mr. Darnay; and my best is as
good as another man』s, I believe.」
It clearly being incumbent on some one to say, 「Much better,」
Mr. Lorry said it; perhaps not quite disinterestedly, but with the
interested object of squeezing himself back again.
「You think so?」 said Mr. Stryver. 「Well! you have been present
all day, and you ought to know. You are a man of business, too.」
「And as such,」 quoth Mr. Lorry, whom the counsel learned in
the law had now shouldered back into the group, just as he had
previously shouldered him out of it—「as such I will appeal to
Doctor Manette, to break up this conference and order us all to
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our homes. Miss Lucie looks ill, Mr. Darnay has had a terrible day,
we are worn out.」
「Speak for yourself, Mr. Lorry,」 said Stryver; 「I have a night』s
work to do yet. Speak for yourself.」
「I speak for myself,」 answered Mr. Lorry, 「and for Mr. Darnay,
and for Miss Lucie, and—Miss Lucie, do you not think I may speak
for us all?」 He asked her the question pointedly, and with a glance
at her father.
His face had become frozen, as it were, in a very curious look at
Darnay: an intent look, deepening into a frown of dislike and
distrust, not even unmixed with fear. With this strange expression
on him his thoughts had wandered away.
「My father,」 said Lucie, softly laying her hand on his.
He slowly shook the shadow off, and turned to her.
「Shall we go home, my father?」
With a long breath, he answered 「Yes.」
The friends of the acquitted prisoner had dispersed, under the
impression—which he himself had originated—that he would not
be released that night. The lights were nearly all extinguished in
the passages, the iron gates were being closed with a jar and a
rattle, and the dismal place was deserted until tomorrow
morning』s interest of gallows, pillory, whipping-post, and
branding-iron, should re-people it. Walking between her father
and Mr. Darnay, Lucie Manette passed into the open air. A
hackney-coach was called, and the father and daughter departed
in it.
Mr. Stryver had left them in the passages, to shoulder his way
back to the robing-room. Another person, who had not joined the
group, or interchanged a word with any one of them, but who had
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been leaning against the wall where its shadow was darkest, had
silently strolled out after the rest, and had looked on until the
coach drove away. He now stepped up to where Mr. Lorry and Mr.
Darnay stood upon the pavement.
「So, Mr. Lorry! Men of business may speak to Mr. Darnay
now?」
Nobody had made any acknowledgement of Mr. Carton』s part
in the day』s proceedings; nobody had known of it. He was
unrobed, and was none the better for it in appearance.
「If you knew what a conflict goes on in the business mind,
when the business mind is divided between good-natured impulse
and business appearances, you would be amused, Mr. Darnay.」
Mr. Lorry reddened, and said, warmly, 「You have mentioned
that before, sir. We men of business, who serve a House, are not
our own masters. We have to think of the House more than
ourselves.」
「I know, I know,」 rejoined Mr. Carton, carelessly. 「Don』t be
nettled, Mr. Lorry. You are as good as another, I have no doubt:
better, I daresay.」
「And indeed, sir,」 pursued Mr. Lorry, not minding him, 「I
really don』t know what you have to do with the matter. If you』ll
excuse me, as very much your elder, for saying so, I really don』t
know that it is your business.」
「Business! Bless you, I have no business,」 said Mr. Carton.
「It is a pity you have not, sir.」
「I think so, too.」
「If you had,」 pursued Mr. Lorry, 「perhaps you would attend to
it.」
「Lord love you, no!—I shouldn』t,」 said Mr. Carton.
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「Well, sir!」 cried Mr. Lorry, thoroughly heated by his
indifference, 「business is a very good thing, and a very respectable
thing. And, sir, if business imposes its restraints and its silences
and impediments, Mr. Darnay as a young gentleman of generosity
knows how to make allowance for that circumstance. Mr. Darnay,
good night, God bless you, sir! I hope you have been this day
preserved for a prosperous and happy life.—Chair there!」
Perhaps a little angry with himself, as well as with the barrister,
Mr. Lorry bustled into the chair, and was carried off to Tellson』s.
Carton, who smelt of port wine, and did not appear to be quite
sober, laughed then, and turned to Darnay:
「This is a strange chance that throws you and me together. This
must be a strange night to you, standing alone here with your
counterpart on these street stones?」
「I hardly seem yet,」 returned Charles Darnay, 「to belong to this
world again.」
「I don』t wonder at it; it』s not so long since you were pretty far
advanced on your way to another. You speak faintly.」
「I begin to think I am faint.」
「Then why the devil don』t you dine? I dined, myself, while
those numskulls were deliberating which world you should belong
to—this, or some other. Let me show you the nearest tavern to
dine well at.」
Drawing his arm through his own, he took him down Ludgatehill to Fleet Street, and so, up a covered way, into a tavern. Here,
they were shown into a little room, where Charles Darnay was
soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good
wine: while Carton sat opposite to him at the same table, with his
separate bottle of port before him, and his fully half-insolent
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manner upon him.
「Do you feel, yet, that you belong to this terrestrial scheme
again, Mr. Darnay?」
「I am frightfully confused regarding time and place; but I am so
far mended as to feel that.」
「It must be an immense satisfaction!」
He said it bitterly, and filled up his glass again: which was a
large one.
「As to me, the greatest desire I have, is to forget that I belong to
it. It has no good in it for me—except wine like this—nor I for it.
So we are not much alike in that particular. Indeed, I begin to
think we are not much alike in any particular, you and I.」
Confused by the emotion of the day, and feeling his being there
with this Double of coarse deportment, to be like a dream, Charles
Darnay was at a loss how to answer; finally, answered not at all.
「Now your dinner is done,」 Carton presently said, 「why don』t
you call a health, Mr. Darnay; why don』t you give your toast?」
「What health? What toast?」
「Why, it』s on the tip of your tongue. It ought to be, it must be,
I』ll swear it』s there.」
「Miss Manette, then!」
「Miss Manette, then!」
Looking his companion full in the face while he drank the toast,
Carton flung his glass over his shoulder against the wall, where it
shivered to pieces; then, rang the bell, and ordered in another.
「That』s a fair young lady to hand to a coach in the dark, Mr.
Darnay!」 he said, filling his new goblet.
A slight frown and a laconic, 「Yes,」 were the answer.
「That』s a fair young lady to be pitied by and wept for by! How
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does it feel? Is it worth being tried for one』s life, to be the object of
such sympathy and compassion, Mr. Darnay?」
Again Darnay answered not a word.
「She was mightily pleased to have your message, when I gave it
to her. Not that she showed she was pleased, but I suppose she
was.」
The allusion served as a timely reminder to Darnay that this
disagreeable companion had, of his own free will, assisted him in
the strait of the day. He turned the dialogue to that point, and
thanked him for it.
「I neither want any thanks, nor merit any,」 was the careless
rejoinder. 「It was nothing to do, in the first place; and I don』t know
why I did it, in the second. Mr. Darnay, let me ask you a question.」
「Willingly, and a small return for your good offices.」
「Do you think I particularly like you?」
「Really, Mr. Carton,」 returned the other, oddly disconcerted, 「I
have not asked myself the question.」
「But ask yourself the question now.」
「You have acted as if you do; but I don』t think you do.」
「I don』t think I do,」 said Carton. 「I begin to have a very good
opinion of your understanding.」
「Nevertheless,」 pursued Darnay, rising to ring the bell, 「there
is nothing in that, I hope, to prevent my calling the reckoning, and
our parting without ill-blood on either side.」
Carton rejoining, 「Nothing in life!」 Darnay rang. 「Do you call
the whole reckoning?」 said Carton. On his answering in the
affirmative, 「Then bring me another pint of this same wine,
drawer, and come and wake me at ten.」
The bill being paid, Charles Darnay rose and wished him good
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night. Without returning the wish, Carton rose too, with
something of a threat of defiance in his manner, and said: 「A last
word, Mr. Darnay: you think I am drunk?」
「I think you have been drinking, Mr. Carton.」
「Think? You know I have been drinking.」
「Since I must say so, I know it.」
「Then you shall likewise know why. I am a disappointed
drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares
for me.」
「Much to be regretted. You might have used your talents
better.」
「May be so, Mr. Darnay; may be not. Don』t let your sober face
elate you, however; you don』t know what it may come to. Good
night!」
When he was left alone, this strange being took up a candle,
went to a glass that hung against the wall, and surveyed himself
minutely in it.
「Do you particularly like the man?」 he muttered, at his own
image; 「why should you particularly like a man who resembles
you? There is nothing in you to like; you know that. Ah, confound
you! What a change you have made in yourself! A good reason for
taking to a man, that he shows you what you have fallen away
from, and what you might have been! Change places with him, and
would you have been looked at by those blue eyes as he was, and
commiserated by that agitated face as he was? Come on, and have
it out in plain words! You hate the fellow!」
He resorted to his pint of wine for consolation, drank it all in a
few minutes, and fell asleep on his arms, with his hair straggling
over the table, and a long winding-sheet in the candle dripping
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down upon him.
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Chapter XI
THE JACKAL
T hose were drinking days, and most men drank hard. So
very great is the improvement Time has brought about in
such habits, that a moderate statement of the quantity of
wine and punch which one man would swallow in the course of a
night, without any detriment to his reputation as a perfect
gentleman, would seem, in these days, a ridiculous exaggeration.
The learned profession of the law was certainly not behind any
other learned profession in its Bacchanalian propensities; neither
was Mr. Stryver, already fast shouldering his way to a large and
lucrative practice, behind his compeers in this particular, any
more than in the drier parts of the legal race.
A favourite at the Old Bailey, and eke at the Sessions, Mr.
Stryver had begun cautiously to hew away the lower staves of the
ladder on which he mounted. Sessions and Old Bailey had now to
summon their favourite, specially, to their longing arms; and
shouldering itself towards the visage of the Lord Chief Justice in
the Court of King』s Bench, the florid countenance of Mr. Stryver
might be daily seen, bursting out of the bed of wigs, like a great
sunflower pushing its way at the sun from among a rank gardenful
of flaring companions.
It had once been noted at the Bar, that while Mr. Stryver was a
glib man, and an unscrupulous, and a ready, and a bold, he had
not that faculty of extracting the essence from a heap of
statements, which is among the most striking and necessary of the
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advocate』s accomplishments. But, a remarkable improvement
came upon him as to this. The more business he got, the greater
his power seemed to grow of getting at its pith and marrow; and
however late at night he sat carousing with Sydney Carton, he
always had his points at his fingers』 ends in the morning.
Sydney Carton, idlest and most unpromising of men, was
Stryver』s great ally. What the two drank together, between Hilary
term and Michaelmas, might have floated a king』s ship. Stryver
never had a case in hand, anywhere, but Carton was there, with
his hands in his pockets, staring at the ceiling of the court; they
went the same Circuit, and even there they prolonged their usual
orgies late into the night, and Carton was rumoured to be seen at
broad day, going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings,
like a dissipated cat. At last, it began to get about, among such as
were interested in the matter, that although Sydney Carton would
never be a lion, he was an amazingly good jackal, and that he
rendered suit and service to Stryver in that humble capacity.
「Ten o』clock, sir,」 said the man at the tavern, whom he had
charged to wake him—「ten o』clock, sir.」
「What』s the matter?」
「Ten o』clock, sir.」
「What do you mean? Ten o』clock at night?」
「Yes, sir. Your honour told me to call you.」
「Oh! I remember. Very well, very well.」
After a few dull efforts to get to sleep again, which the man
dexterously combated by stirring the fire continuously for five
minutes, he got up, tossed his hat on, and walked out. He turned
into the Temple, and, having revived himself by twice pacing the
pavements of King』s Bench-walk and Paper-buildings, turned into
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the Stryver chambers.
The Stryver clerk, who never assisted at these conferences, had
gone home, and the Stryver principal opened the door. He had his
slippers on, and a loose bed-gown, and his throat was bare for his
greater ease. He had that rather wild, strained, seared marking
about the eyes which may be observed in all free livers of his class,
from the portrait of Jeffries downward, and which can be traced,
under various disguises of Art, through the portraits of every
Drinking Age.
「You are a little late, Memory,」 said Stryver.
「About the usual time; it may be a quarter of an hour later.」
They went into a dingy room lined with books and littered with
papers, where there was a blazing fire. A kettle steamed upon the
hob, and in the midst of the wreck of papers a table shone, with
plenty of wine upon it, and brandy, and rum, and sugar, and
lemons.
「You have had your bottle, I perceive, Sydney.」
「Two tonight I think. I have been dining with the day』s client;
or seeing him dine—it』s all one!」
「That was a rare point, Sydney, that you brought to bear upon
the identification. How did you come by it? When did it strike
you?」
「I thought he was rather a handsome fellow, and I thought I
should have been much the same sort of fellow, if I had had any
luck.」
Mr. Stryver laughed till he shook his precocious paunch.
「You and your luck, Sydney! Get to work, get to work.」
Sullenly enough, the jackal loosened his dress, went into an
adjoining room, and came back with a large jug of cold water, a
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basin, and a towel or two. Steeping the towels in the water, and
partially wringing them out, he folded them on his head in a
manner hideous to behold, sat down at the table, and said, 「Now I
am ready!」
「Not much boiling down to be done tonight, Memory,」 said Mr.
Stryver, gaily, as he looked among his papers.
「How much?」
「Only two sets of them.」
「Give me the worst first.」
「There they are, Sydney. Fire away!」
The lion then composed himself on his back on a sofa on one
side of the drinking table, while the jackal sat at his own paperbestrewn table proper, on the other side of it, with the bottles and
glasses ready to his hand. Both resorted to the drinking-table
without stint, but each in a different way; the lion for the most part
reclining with his hands in his waistband, looking at the fire, or
occasionally flirting with some lighter document; the jackal, with
knitted brows and intent face, so deep in his task, that his eyes did
not even follow the hand he stretched out for his glass—which
often groped about, for a minute or more, before it found the glass
for his lips. Two or three times, the matter in hand became so
knotty, that the jackal found it imperative on him to get up, and
steep his towels anew. From these pilgrimages to the jug and
basin, he returned with such eccentricities of damp head-gear as
no words can describe; which were made the more ludicrous by
his anxious gravity.
At length the jackal had got together a compact repast for the
lion, and proceeded to offer it to him. The lion took it with care
and caution, made his selections from it, and his remarks upon it,
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and the jackal assisted both. When the repast was fully discussed,
the lion put his hands in his waistband again, and lay down to
meditate. The jackal then invigorated himself with a bumper for
his throttle, and a fresh application to his head, and applied
himself to the collection of a second meal; this was administered to
the lion in the same manner, and was not disposed of until the
clock struck three in the morning.
「And now we have done, Sydney, fill a bumper of punch,」 said
Mr. Stryver.
The jackal removed the towels from his head, which had been
steaming again, shook himself, yawned, shivered, and complied.
「You were very sound, Sydney, in the matter of those crown
witnesses today. Every question told.」
「I always am sound; am I not?」
「I don』t gainsay it. What has roughened your temper? Put some
punch to it and smooth it again.」
With a deprecatory grunt, the jackal again complied.
「The old Sydney Carton of old Shrewsbury School,」 said
Stryver, nodding his head over him as he reviewed him in the
present and the past, 「the old seesaw Sydney. Up one minute and
down the next; now in spirits and now in despondency!」
「Ah!」 returned the other sighing: 「Yes! The same Sydney, with
the same luck. Even then, I did exercise for other boys, and
seldom did my own.」
「And why not?」
「God knows. It was my way, I suppose.」
He sat, with his hands in his pockets and his legs stretched out
before him, looking at the fire. 「Carton,」 said his friend, squaring
himself at him with a bullying air, as if the fire-grate had been the
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furnace in which sustained endeavour was forged, and one
delicate thing to be done for the old Sydney Carton of old
Shrewsbury School was to shoulder him into it, 「your way is, and
always was, a lame way. You summon no energy and purpose.
Look at me.」
「Oh, botheration!」 returned Sydney, with a lighter and more
good-humoured laugh, 「don』t you be moral!」
「How have I done what I have done?」 said Stryver; 「how do I
do what I do?」
「Partly through paying me to help you, I suppose. But it』s not
worth while to apostrophise me, or the air, about it; what you want
to do, you do. You were always in the front rank, and I was always
behind.」
「I had to get into the front rank; I was not born there, was I?」
「I was not present at the ceremony; but my opinion is you
were,」 said Carton. At this, he laughed again, and they both
laughed.
「Before Shrewsbury, and at Shrewsbury, and ever since
Shrewsbury,」 pursued Carton, 「you have fallen into your rank,
and I have fallen into mine. Even when we were fellow-students in
the Student-Quarter of Paris, picking up French, and French law,
and other French crumbs that we didn』t get much good of, you
were always somewhere and I was always—nowhere.」
「And whose fault was that?」
「Upon my soul, I am not sure that it was not yours. You were
always driving and riving and shouldering and pressing, to that
restless degree that I had no chance for my life but in rust and
repose. It』s a gloomy thing, however, to talk about one』s own past,
with the day breaking. Turn me in some other direction before I
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go.」
「Well then! Pledge me to the pretty witness,」 said Stryver,
holding up his glass. 「Are you turned in a pleasant direction?」
Apparently not, for he became gloomy again.
「Pretty witness,」 he muttered, looking down into his glass. 「I
have had enough of witnesses today and tonight: who』s your pretty
witness?」
「The picturesque doctor』s daughter, Miss Manette.」
「She pretty?」
「Is she not?」
「No.」
「Why, man alive, she was the admiration of the whole court?」
「Rot the admiration of the whole court! Who made the Old
Bailey a judge of beauty? She was a golden-haired doll!」
「Do you know, Sydney,」 said Mr. Stryver, looking at him with
sharp eyes, and slowly drawing a hand across his florid face; 「do
you know, I rather thought, at the time, that you sympathised with
the golden-haired doll, and were quick to see what happened to
the golden-haired doll?」
「Quick to see what happened! If a girl, doll or no doll, swoons
within a yard or two of a man』s nose, he can see it without a
perspective-glass. I pledge you, but I deny the beauty. And now I』ll
have no more drink; I』ll get to bed.」
When his host followed him out on the staircase with a candle,
to light him down the stairs, the day was coldly looking in through
its grimy windows. When he got out of the house, the air was cold
and sad, the dull sky overcast, the river dark and dim, the whole
scene like a lifeless desert. And wreaths of dust were spinning
round and round before the morning blast, as if the desert-sand
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had risen far away, and the fine spray of it in its advance had
begun to overwhelm the city.
Waste forces within him, and a desert all around, this man
stood still on his way across a silent terrace, and saw for a
moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of
honourable ambition, self-denial, and perseverance. In the fair city
of this vision, there were airy galleries from which the loves and
graces looked upon him, gardens in which the fruits of life hung
ripening, waters of Hope that sparkled in his sight. A moment, and
it was gone. Climbing to a high chamber, in a well of houses, he
threw himself down in his clothes on a neglected bed, and its
pillow was wet with wasted tears.
Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the
man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their
directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own
happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to
let it eat him away.
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Chapter XII
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE
T he quiet lodgings of Doctor Manette were in a street-
corner not far from Soho-square. On the afternoon of a
certain fine Sunday when the waves of four months had
rolled over the trial for treason, and carried it, as to the public
interest and memory, far out to sea, Mr. Jarvis Lorry walked along
the sunny streets from Clerkenwell where he lived, on his way to
dine with the Doctor. After several relapses into the business-
absorption, Mr. Lorry had become the Doctor』s friend, and the
quiet street-corner was the sunny part of his life.
On this certain fine Sunday, Mr. Lorry walked towards Soho,
early in the afternoon, for three reasons of habit. Firstly, because,
on fine Sundays, he often walked out, before dinner, with the
Doctor and Lucie; secondly, because, on unfavourable Sundays,
he was accustomed to be with them as the family friend, talking,
reading, looking out of window, and generally getting through the
day; thirdly, because he happened to have his own little shrewd
doubts to solve, and knew how the ways of the Doctor』s household
pointed to that time as a likely time for solving them.
A quainter corner than the corner where the Doctor lived, was
not to be found in London. There was no way through it, and the
front windows of the Doctor』s lodgings commanded a pleasant
little vista of street that had a congenial air of retirement on it.
There were few buildings then, north of the Oxford-road, and
forest-trees flourished, and wild flowers grew, and the hawthorn
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blossomed, in the now vanished fields. As a consequence, country
airs circulated in Soho with vigorous freedom, instead of
languishing into the parish like stray paupers without a
settlement; and there was many a good south wall, not far off, on
which the peaches ripened in their season.
The summer light struck into the corner brilliantly in the
earlier part of the day; but, when the streets grew hot, the corner
was in shadow, though not in shadow so remote but that you could
see beyond it into a glare of brightness. It was a cool spot, staid but
cheerful, a wonderful place for echoes, and a very harbour from
the raging streets.
There ought to have been a tranquil bark in such an anchorage,
and there was. The Doctor occupied two floors of a large still
house, where several callings purported to be pursued by day, but
whereof little was audible any day, and which was shunned by all
of them at night. In a building at the back, attainable by a
courtyard where a plane-tree rustled its green leaves, church-
organs claimed to be made, and silver to be chased, and likewise
gold to be beaten by some mysterious giant who had a golden arm
starting out of the wall of the front hall—as if he had beaten
himself precious, and menaced a similar conversion of all visitors.
Very little of these trades, or of a lonely lodger rumoured to live
upstairs, or of a dim coach-trimming maker asserted to have a
counting-house below, was ever heard or seen. Occasionally, a
stray workman putting his coat on, traversed the hall, or a
stranger peered about there, or a distant clink was heard across
the courtyard, or a thump from the golden giant. These, however,
were only the exceptions required to prove the rule that the
sparrows in the plane-tree behind the house, and the echoes in the
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corner before it, had their own way from Sunday morning unto
Saturday night.
Doctor Manette received such patients here as his old
reputation, and its revival in the floating whispers of his story,
brought him. His scientific knowledge and his vigilance and skill
in conducting ingenious experiments, brought him otherwise into
moderate request, and he earned as much as he wanted.
These things were within Mr. Jarvis Lorry』s knowledge,
thoughts, and notice, when he rang the door-bell of the tranquil
house in the corner, on the fine Sunday afternoon.
「Doctor Manette at home?」
Expected home.
「Miss Lucie at home?」
Expected home.
「Miss Pross at home?」
Possibly at home, but of a certainty impossible for handmaid to
anticipate intentions of Miss Pross, as to admission or denial of the
fact.
「As I am at home myself,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「I』ll go upstairs.」
Although the Doctor』s daughter had known nothing of the
country of her birth, she appeared to have innately derived from it
that ability to make much of little means, which is one of its most
useful and most agreeable characteristics. Simple as the furniture
was, it was set off by so many little adornments, of no value, but
for their taste and fancy, that its effect was delightful. The
disposition of everything in the rooms, from the largest object to
the least; the arrangement of colours, the elegant variety and
contrast obtained by thrift in trifles, by delicate hands, clear eyes,
and good sense; were at once so pleasant in themselves, and so
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expressive of their originator, that, as Mr. Lorry stood looking
about him, the very chairs and tables seemed to ask him, with
something of that peculiar expression which he knew so well by
this time, whether he approved?
There were three rooms on a floor, and, the doors by which
they communicated being put open that the air might pass freely
through them all, Mr. Lorry, smilingly observant of that fanciful
resemblance which he detected all around him, walked from one
to another. The first was the best room, and in it were Lucie』s
birds, and flowers, and books, and desk, and worktable, and box of
water-colours; the second was the Doctor』s consulting-room, used
also as the dining-room; the third, changingly speckled by the
rustle of the plane-tree in the yard, was the Doctor』s bedroom, and
there in a corner, stood the disused shoemaker』s bench and tray of
tools, much as it had stood on the fifth floor of the dismal house by
the wine-shop, in the suburb of Saint Antoine in Paris.
「I wonder,」 said Mr. Lorry, pausing in his looking about, 「that
he keeps that reminder of his sufferings about him!」
「And why wonder at that?」 was the abrupt inquiry that made
him start.
It proceeded from Miss Pross, the wild red woman, strong of
hand, whose acquaintance he had first made at the Royal George
Hotel at Dover, and had since improved.
「I should have thought—」 Mr. Lorry began.
「Pooh! You』d have thought!」 said Miss Pross; and Mr. Lorry
left off.
「How do you do?」 inquired that lady then—sharply, and yet as
if to express that she bore him no malice.
「I am pretty well, I thank you,」 answered Mr. Lorry, with
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meekness; 「how are you?」
「Nothing to boast of,」 said Miss Pross.
「Indeed?」
「Ah! indeed!」 said Miss Pross. 「I am very much put out about
my Ladybird.」
「Indeed?」
「For gracious sake say something else besides 『indeed,』 or you』ll
fidget me to death,」 said Miss Pross: whose character (dissociated
from stature) was shortness.
「Really, then?」 said Mr. Lorry, as an amendment.
「Really, is bad enough,」 returned Miss Pross, 「but better. Yes, I
am very much put out.」
「May I ask the cause?」
「I don』t want dozens of people who are not at all worthy of
Ladybird, to come here looking after her,」 said Miss Pross.
「Do dozens come for that purpose?」
「Hundreds,」 said Miss Pross.
It was characteristic of this lady (as of some other people before
her time and since), that whenever her original proposition was
questioned, she exaggerated it.
「Dear me!」 said Mr. Lorry, as the safest remark he could think
of.
「I have lived with the darling—or the darling has lived with me,
and paid me for it; which she certainly should never have done,
you may take your affidavit, if I could have afforded to keep either
myself or her for nothing—since she was ten years old. And it』s
really very hard,」 said Miss Pross.
Not seeing with precision what was very hard, Mr. Lorry shook
his head; using that important part of himself as a sort of fairy
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cloak that would fit anything.
「All sorts of people who are not in the least degree worthy of
the pet, are always turning up,」 said Miss Pross. 「When you began
it—」
「I began it, Miss Pross?」
「Didn』t you? Who brought her father to life?」
「Oh! If that was beginning it—」 said Mr. Lorry.
「It wasn』t ending it, I suppose? I say, when you began it, it was
hard enough; not that I have any fault to find with Doctor Manette,
except that he is not worthy of such a daughter, which is no
imputation on him, for it was not to be expected that anybody
should be, under any circumstances. But it really is doubly and
trebly hard to have crowds and multitudes of people turning up
after him (I could have forgiven him), to take Ladybird』s affections
away from me.」
Mr. Lorry knew Miss Pross to be very jealous, but he also knew
her by this time to be, beneath the surface of her eccentricity, one
of those unselfish creatures—found only among women—who will,
for pure love and admiration, bind themselves willing slaves, to
youth when they have lost it, to beauty that they never had, to
accomplishments that they were never fortunate enough to gain,
to bright hopes that never shone upon their own sombre lives. He
knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better
than the faithful service of the heart; so rendered and so free from
any mercenary taint, he had such an exalted respect for it, that in
the retributive arrangements made by his own mind—we all make
such arrangements, more or less—he stationed Miss Pross much
nearer to the lower Angels than many ladies immeasurably better
got up both by Nature and Art, who had balances at Tellson』s.
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「There never was, nor will be, but one man worthy of
Ladybird,」 said Miss Pross; 「and that was my brother Solomon, if
he hadn』t made a mistake in life.」
Here again: Mr. Lorry』s inquiries into Miss Pross』s personal
history had established the fact that her brother Solomon was a
heartless scoundrel who had stripped her of everything she
possessed, as a stake to speculate with, and had abandoned her in
her poverty for evermore, with no touch of compunction. Miss
Pross』s fidelity of belief in Solomon (deducting a mere trifle for
this slight mistake) was quite a serious matter with Mr. Lorry, and
had its weight in his good opinion of her.
「As we happen to be alone for the moment, and are both people
of business,」 he said, when they had got back to the drawing-room
and had sat down there in friendly relations, 「let me ask you—
does the Doctor, in talking with Lucie, never refer to the
shoemaking time, yet?」
「Never.」
「And yet keeps that bench and those tools beside him?」
「Ah!」 returned Miss Pross, shaking her head. 「But I don』t say
he don』t refer to it within himself.」
「Do you believe that he thinks of it much?」
「I do,」 said Miss Pross.
「Do you imagine—」 Mr. Lorry had begun, when Miss Pross
took him up short with:
「Never imagine anything. Have no imagination at all.」
「I stand corrected; do you suppose—you go so far as to
suppose, sometimes?」
「Now and then,」 said Miss Pross.
「Do you suppose,」 Mr. Lorry went on, with a laughing twinkle
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in his bright eye, as it looked kindly at her, 「that Doctor Manette
has any theory of his own, preserved through all those years,
relative to the cause of his being so oppressed; perhaps, even to
the name of his oppressor?」
「I don』t suppose anything about it but what Ladybird tells me.」
「And that is—?」
「That she thinks he has.」
「Now don』t be angry at my asking all these questions; because I
am a mere dull man of business, and you are a woman of
business.」
「Dull?」 Miss Pross inquired, with placidity.
Rather wishing his modest adjective away, Mr. Lorry replied,
「No, no, no. Surely not. To return to business:—Is it not
remarkable that Doctor Manette, unquestionably innocent of any
crime as we are all well assured he is, should never touch upon
that question? I will not say with me, though he had business
relations with me many years ago, and we are now intimate; I will
say with the fair daughter to whom he is so devotedly attached,
and who is so devotedly attached to him? Believe me, Miss Pross, I
don』t approach the topic with you, out of curiosity, but out of
zealous interest.」
「Well! To the best of my understanding, and bad』s the best,
you』ll tell me,」 said Miss Pross, softened by the tone of the
apology, 「he is afraid of the whole subject.」
「Afraid?」
「It』s plain enough, I should think, why he may be. It』s a
dreadful remembrance. Besides that, his loss of himself grew out
of it. Not knowing how he lost himself, or how he recovered
himself, he may never feel certain of not losing himself again. That
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alone wouldn』t make the subject pleasant, I should think.」
It was a profounder remark than Mr. Lorry had looked for.
「True,」 said he, 「and fearful to reflect upon. Yet, a doubt lurks in
my mind, Miss Pross, whether it is good for Doctor Manette to
have that suppression always shut up within him. Indeed, it is this
doubt and the uneasiness it sometimes causes me that has led me
to our present confidence.」
「Can』t be helped,」 said Miss Pross, shaking her head. 「Touch
that string, and he instantly changes for the worse. Better leave it
alone. In short, must leave it alone, like or no like. Sometimes, he
gets up in the dead of the night, and will be heard, by us overhead
there, walking up and down, walking up and down, in his room.
Ladybird has learnt to know then that his mind is walking up and
down, walking up and down, in his old prison. She hurries to him,
and they go on together, walking up and down, walking up and
down, until he is composed. But he never says a word of the true
reason of his restlessness, to her, and she finds it best not to hint at
it to him. In silence they go walking up and down together,
walking up and down together, till her love and company have
brought him to himself.」
Notwithstanding Miss Pross』s denial of her own imagination,
there was a perception of the pain of being monotonously haunted
by one sad idea, in her repetition of the phrase, walking up and
down, which testified to her possessing such a thing.
The corner has been mentioned as a wonderful corner for
echoes; it had begun to echo so resoundingly to the tread of
coming feet, that it seemed as though the very mention of that
weary pacing to and fro had set it going.
「Here they are!」 said Miss Pross, rising to break up the
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conference; 「and now we shall have hundreds of people pretty
soon!」
It was such a curious corner in its acoustical properties, such a
peculiar Ear of a place, that as Mr. Lorry stood at the open
window, looking for the father and daughter whose steps he heard,
he fancied they would never approach. Not only would the echoes
die away, as though the steps had gone; but, echoes of other steps
that never came would be heard in their stead, and would die
away for good when they seemed close at hand. However, father
and daughter did at last appear, and Miss Pross was ready at the
street door to receive them.
Miss Pross was a pleasant sight, albeit wild, and red, and grim,
taking off her darling』s bonnet when she came upstairs, and
touching it up with the ends of her handkerchief, and blowing the
dust off it, and folding her mantle ready for laying by, and
smoothing her rich hair with as much pride as she could possibly
have taken in her own hair if she had been the vainest and
handsomest of women. Her darling was a pleasant sight too,
embracing her and thanking her, and protesting against her
taking so much trouble for her—which last she only dared to do
playfully, or Miss Pross, sorely hurt, would have retired to her own
chamber and cried. The Doctor was a pleasant sight too, looking
on at them, and telling Miss Pross how she spoilt Lucie, in accents
and with eyes that had as much spoiling in them as Miss Pross
had, and would have had more if it were possible. Mr. Lorry was a
pleasant sight too, beaming at all this in his little wig, and
thanking his bachelor stars for having lighted him in his declining
years to a Home. But, no Hundreds of people came to see the
sights, and Mr. Lorry looked in vain for the fulfilment of Miss
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Pross』s prediction.
Dinner-time, and still no Hundreds of people. In the
arrangements of the little household, Miss Pross took charge of the
lower regions, and always acquitted herself marvellously. Her
dinners, of a very modest quality, were so well cooked and so well
served, and so neat in their contrivances, half English and half
French, that nothing could be better. Miss Pross』s friendship
being of the thoroughly practical kind, she had ravaged Soho and
the adjacent provinces, in search of impoverished French, who,
tempted by shillings and half-crowns, would impart culinary
mysteries to her. From these decayed sons and daughters of Gaul,
she had acquired such wonderful arts, that the woman and girl
who formed the staff of domestics regarded her as quite a
Sorceress, or Cinderella』s Godmother: who would send out for a
fowl, a rabbit, a vegetable or two from the garden, and change
them into anything she pleased.
On Sundays, Miss Pross dined at the Doctor』s table, but on
other days persisted in taking her meals at unknown periods,
either in the lower regions, or in her own room on the second
floor—a blue chamber, to which no one but her Ladybird ever
gained admittance. On this occasion, Miss Pross, responding to
Ladybird』s pleasant face and pleasant efforts to please her, unbent
exceedingly; so the dinner was very pleasant, too.
It was an oppressive day, and, after dinner, Lucie proposed that
the wine should be carried out under the plane-tree, and they
should sit there in the air. As everything turned upon her, and
revolved about her, they went out under the plane-tree, and she
carried the wine down for the special benefit of Mr. Lorry. She
had installed herself, some time before, as Mr. Lorry』s cupbearer;
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and while they sat under the plane-tree, talking, she kept his glass
replenished. Mysterious backs and ends of houses peeped at them
as they talked, and the plane-tree whispered to them in its own
way above their heads.
Still, the Hundreds of people did not present themselves. Mr.
Darnay presented himself while they were sitting under the plane-
tree, but he was only One.
Doctor Manette received him kindly, and so did Lucie. But Miss
Pross suddenly became afflicted with a twitching in the head and
body, and retired into the house. She was not unfrequently the
victim of this disorder, and she called it, in familiar conversation,
「a fit of the jerks.」
The Doctor was in his best condition, and looked specially
young. The resemblance between him and Lucie was very strong
at such times, and as they sat side by side, she leaning on his
shoulder, and he resting his arm on the back of her chair, it was
very agreeable to trace the likeness.
He had been talking all day, on many subjects, and with
unusual vivacity. 「Pray, Doctor Manette,」 said Mr. Darnay, as they
sat under the plane-tree—and he said it in the natural pursuit of
the topic in hand, which happened to be the old buildings of
London—」have you seen much of the Tower?」
「Lucie and I have been there; but only casually. We have seen
enough of it, to know that it teems with interest; little more.」
「I have been there, as you remember,」 said Darnay, with a
smile, though reddening a little angrily, 「in another character, and
not in a character that gives facilities for seeing much of it. They
told me a curious thing when I was there.」
「What was that?」 Lucie asked.
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「In making some alterations, the workmen came upon an old
dungeon, which had been, for many years, built up and forgotten.
Every stone of its inner wall was covered by inscriptions which
had been carved by prisoners—dates, names, complaints, and
prayers. Upon a corner stone in an angle of the wall, one prisoner,
who seemed to have gone to execution, had cut as his last work,
three letters. They were done with some very poor instrument,
and hurriedly, with an unsteady hand. At first, they were read as
D.I.C.; but, on being more carefully examined, the last letter was
found to be G. There was no record or legend of any prisoner with
those initials, and many fruitless guesses were made what the
name could have been. At length, it was suggested that the letters
were not initials, but the complete word, DIG. The floor was
examined very carefully under the inscription, and, in the earth
beneath a stone, or tile, or some fragment of paving, were found
the ashes of a paper, mingled with the ashes of a small leathern
case or bag. What the unknown prisoner had written will never be
read, but he had written something, and hidden it away to keep it
from the gaoler.」
「My father,」 exclaimed Lucie, 「you are ill!」
He had suddenly started up, with his hand to his head. His
manner and his look quite terrified them all.
「No, my dear, not ill. There are large drops of rain falling, and
they made me start. We had better go in.」
He recovered himself almost instantly. Rain was really falling in
large drops, and he showed the back of his hand with raindrops on
it. But, he said not a single word in reference to the discovery that
had been told of, and, as they went into the house, the business
eye of Mr. Lorry either detected, or fancied it detected, on his face,
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as it turned towards Charles Darnay, the same singular look that
had been upon it when it turned towards him in the passages of
the Court House.
He recovered himself so quickly, however, that Mr. Lorry had
doubts of his business eye. The arm of the golden giant in the hall
was not more steady than he was, when he stopped under it to
remark to them that he was not yet proof against slight surprises
(if he ever would be), and that the rain had startled him.
Tea-time, and Miss Pross making tea, with another fit of the
jerks upon her, and yet no Hundreds of people. Mr. Carton had
lounged in, but he made only Two.
The night was so very sultry, that although they sat with doors
and windows open, they were overpowered by heat. When the tea-
table was done with, they all moved to one of the windows, and
looked out into the heavy twilight. Lucie sat by her father; Darnay
sat beside her; Carton leaned against a window. The curtains were
long and white, and some of the thunder-gusts that whirled into
the corner, caught them up to the ceiling, and waved them like
spectral wings.
「The raindrops are still falling, large, heavy, and few,」 said
Doctor Manette. 「It comes slowly.」
「It comes surely,」 said Carton.
They spoke low, as people watching and waiting mostly do; as
people in a dark room, watching and waiting for Lightning, always
do.
There was a great hurry in the streets, of people speeding away
to get shelter before the storm broke; the wonderful corner for
echoes resounded with the echoes of footsteps coming and going,
yet not a footstep was there.
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「A multitude of people, and yet a solitude,」 said Darnay, when
they had listened for a while.
「Is it not impressive, Mr. Darnay?」 asked Lucie. 「Sometimes, I
have sat here of an evening, until I have fancied—but even the
shade of a foolish fancy makes me shudder tonight, when all is so
black and solemn—」
「Let us shudder too. We may know what it is.」
「It will seem nothing to you. Such whims are only impressive as
we originate them, I think; they are not to be communicated. I
have sometimes sat alone here of an evening, listening, until I
have made the echoes out to be the echoes of all the footsteps that
are coming by-and-by into our lives.」
「There is a great crowd coming one day into our lives, if that be
so,」 Sydney Carton struck in, in his moody way.
The footsteps were incessant, and the hurry of them became
more and more rapid. The corner echoed and re-echoed with the
tread of feet; some, as it seemed, under the windows; some, as it
seemed, in the room; some coming, some going, some breaking off,
some stopping altogether; all in the distant streets, and not one
within sight.
「Are all these footsteps destined to come to all of us, Miss
Manette, or are we to divide them among us?」
「I don』t know, Mr. Darnay; I told you it was a foolish fancy, but
you asked for it. When I have yielded myself to it, I have been
alone, and then I have imagined them the footsteps of the people
who are to come into my life, and my father』s.」
「I take them into mine!」 said Carton. 「I ask no questions and
make no stipulations. There is a great crowd bearing down upon
us, Miss Manette, and I see them—by the Lightning.」 He added
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the last words, after there had been a vivid flash which had shown
him lounging in the window.
「And I hear them!」 he added again, after a peal of thunder.
「Here they come, fast, fierce, and furious!」
It was the rush and roar of rain that he typified, and it stopped
him, for no voice could be heard in it. A memorable storm of
thunder and lightning broke with that sweep of water, and there
was not a moment』s interval in crash, and fire, and rain, until after
the moon rose at midnight.
The great bell of Saint Paul』s was striking One in the cleared
air, when Mr. Lorry, escorted by Jerry, high-booted and bearing a
lantern, set forth on his return passage to Clerkenwell. There were
solitary patches of road on the way between Soho and
Clerkenwell, and Mr. Lorry, mindful of footpads, always retained
Jerry for this service: though it was usually performed a good two
hours earlier.
「What a night it has been! Almost a night, Jerry,」 said Mr.
Lorry, 「to bring the dead out of their graves.」
「I never see the night myself, master—nor yet I don』t expect
to—what would do that,」 answered Jerry.
「Good night, Mr. Carton,」 said the man of business. 「Good
night, Mr. Darnay. Shall we ever see such a night again, together!」
Perhaps. Perhaps, see the great crowd of people with its rush
and roar, bearing down upon them, too.
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Chapter XIII
MONSEIGNEUR IN TOWN
Monseigneur, one of the great lords in power at the Court,
held his fortnightly reception in his grand hotel in
Paris. Monseigneur was in his inner room, his
sanctuary of sanctuaries, the Holiest of Holiests to the crowd of
worshippers in the suite of rooms without. Monseigneur was about
to take his chocolate. Monseigneur could swallow a great many
things with ease, and was by some few sullen minds supposed to
be rather rapidly swallowing France; but, his morning』s chocolate
could not so much as get into the throat of Monseigneur, without
the aid of four strong men besides the Cook.
Yes, it took four men, all four a-blaze with gorgeous decoration,
and the Chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold
watches in his pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion
set by Monseigneur, to conduct the happy chocolate to
Monseigneur』s lips. One lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into the
sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed the chocolate with
the little instrument he bore for that function; a third, presented
the favoured napkin; a fourth (he of the two gold watches), poured
the chocolate out. It was impossible for Monseigneur to dispense
with one of these attendants on the chocolate and hold his high
place under the admiring Heavens. Deep would have been the blot
upon his escutcheon if his chocolate had been ignobly waited on
by only three men; he must have died of two.
Monseigneur had been out at a little supper last night, where
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the Comedy and the Grand Opera were charmingly represented.
Monseigneur was out at a little supper most nights, with
fascinating company. So polite and so impressible was
Monseigneur, that the Comedy and the Grand Opera had far more
influence with him in the tiresome articles of state affairs and state
secrets, than the needs of all France. A happy circumstance for
France, as the like always is for all countries similarly favoured!—
always was for England (by way of example), in the regretted days
of the merry Stuart who sold it.
Monseigneur had one truly noble idea of general public
business, which was, to let everything go on its own way; of
particular public business, Monseigneur had the other truly noble
idea that it must all go his way—tend to his own power and pocket.
Of his pleasures, general and particular, Monseigneur had the
other truly noble idea, that the world was made for them. The text
of his order (altered from the original by only a pronoun, which is
not much) ran: 「The earth and the fullness thereof are mine, saith
Monseigneur.」
Yet, Monseigneur had slowly found that vulgar
embarrassments crept into his affairs, both private and public; and
he had, as to both classes of affairs, allied himself perforce with a
Farmer-General. As to finances public, because Monseigneur
could not make anything at all of them, and must consequently let
them out to somebody who could; as to finances private, because
Farmer-Generals were rich, and Monseigneur, after generations of
great luxury and expense, was growing poor. Hence Monseigneur
had taken his sister from a convent, while there was yet time to
ward off the impending veil, the cheapest garment she could wear,
and had bestowed her as a prize upon a very rich Farmer-General,
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poor in family. Which Farmer-General, carrying an appropriate
cane with a golden apple on the top of it, was now among the
company in the outer rooms, much prostrated before by
mankind—always excepting superior mankind of the blood of
Monseigneur, who, his own wife included, looked down upon him
with the loftiest contempt.
A sumptuous man was the Farmer-General. Thirty horses stood
in his stables, twenty-four male domestics sat in his halls, six body-
women waited on his wife. As one who pretended to do nothing
but plunder and forage where he could, the Farmer-General—
howsoever his matrimonial relations conduced to social morality
was at least the greatest reality among the personages who
attended at the hotel of Monseigneur that day.
For, the rooms, though a beautiful scene to look at, and
adorned with every device of decoration that the taste and skill of
the time could achieve, were, in truth, not a sound business;
considered with any reference to the scarecrows in the rags and
nightcaps elsewhere (and not so far off, either, but that the
watching towers of Notre Dame, almost equidistant from the two
extremes, could see them both), they would have been an
exceedingly uncomfortable business—if that could have been
anybody』s business, at the house of Monseigneur. Military officers
destitute of military knowledge; naval officers with no idea of a
ship; civil officers without a notion of affairs; brazen ecclesiastics,
of the worst world worldly, with sensual eyes, loose tongues, and
looser lives; all totally unfit for their several callings, all lying
horribly in pretending to belong to them, but all nearly or
remotely of the order of Monseigneur, and therefore foisted on all
public employments from which anything was to be got; these
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were to be told off by the score and the score. People not
immediately connected with Monseigneur or the State, yet equally
unconnected with anything that was real, or with lives passed in
travelling by any straight road to any true earthly end, were no
less abundant. Doctors who made great fortunes out of dainty
remedies for imaginary disorders that never existed, smiled upon
their courtly patients in the ante-chambers of Monseigneur.
Projectors who had discovered every kind of remedy for the little
evils with which the State was touched, except the remedy of
setting to work in earnest to root out a single sin, poured their
distracting babble into any ears they could lay hold of, at the
reception of Monseigneur. Unbelieving Philosophers who were
remodelling the world with words, and making card-towers of
Babel to scale the skies with, talked with Unbelieving Chemists
who had an eye on the transmutation of metals, at this wonderful
gathering accumulated by Monseigneur. Exquisite gentlemen of
the finest breeding, which was at that remarkable time—and has
been since—to be known by its fruits of indifference to every
natural subject of human interest, were in the most exemplary
state of exhaustion, at the hotel of Monseigneur. Such homes had
these various notabilities left behind them in the fine world of
Paris, that the spies among the assembled devotees of
Monseigneur—forming a goodly half of the polite company—
would have found it hard to discover among the angels of that
sphere one solitary wife, who, in her manners and appearance,
owned to being a Mother. Indeed, except for the mere act of
bringing a troublesome creature into this world—which does not
go far towards the realisation of the name of mother—there was
no such thing known to the fashion. Peasant women kept the
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unfashionable babies close, and brought them up, and charming
grandmammas of sixty dressed and supped as at twenty.
The leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in
attendance upon Monseigneur. In the outermost room were half a
dozen exceptional people who had had, for a few years, some
vague misgiving in them that things in general were going rather
wrong. As a promising way of setting them right, half of the half-
dozen had become members of a fantastic sect of Convulsionists,
and were even then considering within themselves whether they
should foam, rage, roar, and turn cataleptic on the spot—thereby
setting up a highly intelligible finger-post to the Future, for
Monseigneur』s guidance. Besides these Dervishes, were other
three who had rushed into another sect, which mended matters
with a jargon about 「the Centre of Truth:」 holding that Man had
got out of the Centre of Truth—which did not need much
demonstration—but had not got out of the Circumference, and
that he was to be kept from flying out of the Circumference, and
was even to be shoved back into the Centre, by fasting and seeing
of spirits. Among these, accordingly, much discoursing with spirits
went on—and it did a world of good which never became manifest.
But, the comfort was, that all the company at the grand hotel of
Monseigneur were perfectly dressed. If the Day of Judgment had
only been ascertained to be a dress day, everybody there would
have been eternally correct. Such frizzling and powdering and
sticking up of hair, such delicate complexions artificially preserved
and mended, such gallant swords to look at, and such delicate
honour to the sense of smell, would surely keep anything going,
for ever and ever. The exquisite gentlemen of the finest breeding
wore little pendent trinkets that chinked as they languidly moved;
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these golden fetters rang like precious little bells; and what with
that ringing, and with the rustle of silk and brocade and fine linen,
there was a flutter in the air that fanned Saint Antoine and his
devouring hunger far away.
Dress was the one unfailing talisman and charm used for
keeping all things in their places. Everybody was dressed for a
Fancy Ball that was never to leave off. From the Palace of the
Tuileries, through Monseigneur and the whole Court, through the
Chambers, the Tribunals of Justice, and all society (except the
scarecrows), the Fancy Ball descended to the Common
Executioner: who, in pursuance of the charm, was required to
officiate 「frizzled, powdered, in a gold-laced coat, pumps, and
white silk stockings.」 At the gallows and the wheel—the axe was a
rarity—Monsieur Paris, as it was the episcopal mode among his
brother Professors of the provinces, Monsieur Orleans, and the
rest, to call him, presided in this dainty dress. And who among the
company at Monseigneur』s reception in that seventeen hundred
and eightieth year of Our Lord, could possibly doubt, that a system
rooted in a frizzled hangman, powdered, gold-laced, pumped, and
white-silk stockinged, would see the very stars out!
Monseigneur having eased his four men of their burdens and
taken his chocolate, caused the doors of the Holiest of Holiests to
be thrown open, and issued forth. Then, what submission, what
cringing and fawning, what servility, what abject humiliation! As
to bowing down in body and spirit, nothing in that way was left for
Heaven—which may have been one among other reasons why the
worshippers of Monseigneur never troubled it.
Bestowing a word of promise here and a smile there, a whisper
on one happy slave and wave of the hand on another,
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Monseigneur affably passed through his rooms to the remote
region of the Circumference of Truth. There, Monseigneur turned,
and came back again, and so in due course of time got himself shut
up in his sanctuary by the chocolate sprites, and was seen no
more.
The show being over, the flutter in the air became quite a little
storm, and the precious little bells went ringing downstairs. There
was soon but one person left of all the crowd, and he, with his hat
under his arm and his snuff-box in his hand, slowly passed among
the mirrors on his way out.
「I devote you,」 said this person, stopping at the last door on his
way, and turning in the direction of the sanctuary, 「to the Devil!」
With that, he shook the snuff from his fingers as if he had
shaken the dust from his feet, and quietly walked downstairs.
He was a man of about sixty, handsomely dressed, haughty in
manner, and with a face like a fine mask. A face of a transparent
paleness; every feature in it clearly defined; one set expression on
it. The nose, beautifully formed otherwise, was very slightly
pinched at the top of each nostril. In those two compressions, or
dints, the only little change that the face ever showed, resided.
They persisted in changing colour sometimes, and they would be
occasionally dilated and contracted by something like a faint
pulsation: then, they gave a look of treachery, and cruelty, to the
whole countenance. Examined with attention, its capacity of
helping such a look was to be found in the line of the mouth, and
the lines of the orbits of the eyes, being much too horizontal and
thin; still, in the effect the face made, it was a handsome face, and
a remarkable one.
Its owner went downstairs into the courtyard, got into his
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carriage, and drove away. Not many people had talked with him at
the reception; he had stood in a little space apart, and
Monseigneur might have been warmer in his manner. It appeared
under the circumstances, rather agreeable to him to see the
common people dispersed before his horses, and often barely
escaping from being run down. His man drove as if he were
charging an enemy, and the furious recklessness of the man
brought no check into the face, or to the lips, of the master. The
complaint had sometimes made itself audible, even in that deaf
city and dumb age, that, in the narrow streets without footways,
the fierce patrician custom of hard driving endangered and
maimed the mere vulgar in a barbarous manner. But few cared
enough for that to think of it a second time, and, in this matter, as
in all others, the common wretches were left to get out of their
difficulties as they could.
With a wild rattle and clatter, and an inhuman abandonment of
consideration not easy to be understood in these days, the carriage
dashed though the streets and swept round corners, with women
screaming before it, and men clutching each other and clutching
children out of its way. At last, swooping at a street corner by a
fountain, one of its wheels came to a sickening little jolt, and there
was a loud cry from a number of voices, and the horses reared and
plunged.
But for the latter inconvenience, the carriage probably would
not have stopped; carriages were often known to drive on, and
leave their wounded behind, and why not? But the frightened
valet had got down in a hurry, and there were twenty hands at the
horses』 bridles.
「What has gone wrong?」 said Monsieur, calmly looking out.
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A tall man in a nightcap had caught up a bundle from among
the feet of the horses, and had laid it on the basement of the
fountain, and was down in the mud and wet, howling over it like a
wild animal.
「Pardon, Monsieur the Marquis!」 said a ragged and submissive
man, 「it is a child.」
「Why does he make that abominable noise? Is it his child?」
「Excuse me, Monsieur the Marquis—it is a pity—yes.」
The fountain was a little removed; for the street opened, where
it was, into a space some ten or twelve yards square. As the tall
man suddenly got up from the ground, and came running at the
carriage, Monsieur the Marquis clapped his hand for an instant on
his sword-hilt.
「Killed!」 shrieked the man, in wild desperation, extending both
arms at their length above his head, and staring at him. 「Dead!」
The people closed round, and looked at Monsieur the Marquis.
There was nothing revealed by the many eyes that looked at him
but watchfulness and eagerness; there was no visible menacing or
anger. Neither did the people say anything; after the first cry, they
had been silent, and they remained so. The voice of the submissive
man who had spoken, was flat and tame in its extreme submission.
Monsieur the Marquis ran his eyes over them all, as if they had
been mere rats come out of their holes.
He took out his purse.
「It is extraordinary to me,」 said he, 「that you people cannot
take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you
is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done
my horses? See! Give him that.」
He threw out a gold coin for the valet to pick up, and all the
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heads craned forward that all the eyes might look down as it fell.
The tall man called out again with a most unearthly cry, 「Dead!」
He was arrested by the quick arrival of another man, for whom
the rest made way. On seeing him, the miserable creature fell
upon his shoulder, sobbing and crying, and pointing to the
fountain, where some women were stooping over the motionless
bundle, and moving gently about it. They were as silent, however,
as the men.
「I know all, I know all,」 said the last comer. 「Be a brave man,
my Gaspard! It is better for the poor little plaything to die so, than
to live. It has died in a moment without pain. Could it have lived
an hour as happily?」
「You are a philosopher, you there,」 said the Marquis, smiling.
「How do they call you?」
「They call me Defarge.」
「Of what trade?」
「Monsieur the Marquis, vendor of wine.」
「Pick up that, philosopher and vendor of wine,」 said the
Marquis, throwing him another gold coin, 「and spend it as you
will. The horses there; are they right?」
Without deigning to look at the assemblage a second time,
Monsieur the Marquis leaned back in his seat, and was just being
driven away with the air of a gentleman who had accidentally
broken some common thing, and had paid for it, and could afford
to pay for it; when his ease was suddenly disturbed by a coin flying
into his carriage, and ringing on its floor.
「Hold!」 said Monsieur the Marquis. 「Hold the horses! Who
threw that?」
He looked to the spot where Defarge the vendor of wine had
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stood, a moment before; but the wretched father was grovelling on
his face on the pavement in that spot, and the figure that stood
beside him was the figure of a dark stout woman, knitting.
「You dogs,」 said the Marquis, but smoothly, and with an
unchanged front, except as to the spots on his nose: 「I would ride
over any of you very willingly, and exterminate you from the earth.
If I knew which rascal threw at the carriage, and if that brigand
were sufficiently near it, he should be crushed under the wheels.」
So cowed was their condition, and so long and hard their
experience of what such a man could do to them, within the law
and beyond it, that not a voice, or a hand, or even an eye was
raised. Among the men, not one. But the woman who stood
knitting looked up steadily, and looked the Marquis in the face. It
was not for his dignity to notice it; his contemptuous eyes passed
over her, and over all the other rats; and he leaned back in his seat
again, and gave the word, 「Go on!」
He was driven on, and other carriages came whirling by in
quick succession; the Minister, the State-Projector, the Farmer-
General, the Doctor, the Lawyer, the Ecclesiastic, the Grand
Opera, the Comedy, the whole Fancy Ball in a bright continuous
flow, came whirling by. The rats had crept out of their holes to
look on, and they remained looking on for hours; soldiers and
police often passing between them and the spectacle, and making
a barrier behind which they slunk, and through which they
peeped. The father had long ago taken up his bundle and hidden
himself away with it, when the women who had tended the bundle
while it lay on the base of the fountain, sat there watching the
running of the water and the rolling of the Fancy Ball—when the
one woman who had stood conspicuous, knitting, still knitted on
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with the steadiness of Fate. The water of the fountain ran, the
swift river ran, the day ran into evening, so much life in the city
ran into death according to rule, time and tide waited for no man,
the rats were sleeping close together in their dark holes again, the
Fancy Ball was lighted up at supper, all things ran their courses.
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Chapter XIV
MONSEIGNEUR IN THE COUNTRY
Abeautiful landscape, with the corn bright in it, but not
abundant. Patches of poor rye where corn should have
been, patches of poor peas and beans, patches of most
coarse vegetable substitutes for wheat. On inanimate nature, as on
the men and women who cultivated it, a prevalent tendency
towards an appearance of vegetating unwillingly—a dejected
disposition to give up, and wither away.
Monsieur the Marquis in his travelling carriage (which might
have been lighter), conducted by four post-horses and two
postilions, fagged up a steep hill. A blush on the countenance of
Monsieur the Marquis was no impeachment of his high breeding;
it was not from within; it was occasioned by an external
circumstance beyond his control—the setting sun.
The sunset struck so brilliantly into the travelling carriage
when it gained the hill-top, that its occupant was steeped in
crimson. 「It will die out,」 said Monsieur the Marquis, glancing at
his hands, 「directly.」
In effect, the sun was so low that it dipped at the moment.
When the heavy drag had been adjusted to the wheel, and the
carriage slid down hill, with a cinderous smell, in a cloud of dust,
the red glow departed quickly; the sun and the Marquis going
down together, there was no glow left when the drag was taken off.
But there remained a broken country, bold and open, a little
village at the bottom of the hill, a broad sweep and rise beyond it,
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a church-tower, a windmill, a forest for the chase, and a crag with
a fortress on it used as a prison. Round upon all these darkening
objects as the night drew on, the Marquis looked, with the air of
one who was coming near home.
The village had its one poor street, with its poor brewery, poor
tannery, poor tavern, poor stable-yard for relays of post-horses,
poor fountain, all usual poor appointments. It had its poor people
too. All its people were poor, and many of them were sitting at
their doors, shredding spare onions and the like for supper, while
many were at the fountain, washing leaves, and grasses, and any
such small yieldings of the earth that could be eaten. Expressive
signs of what made them poor, were not wanting; the tax for the
state, the tax for the church, the tax for the lord, tax local and tax
general, were to be paid here and to be paid there, according to
solemn inscription in the little village, until the wonder was, that
there was any village left unswallowed.
Few children were to be seen, and no dogs. As to the men and
women, their choice on earth was stated in the prospect—Life on
the lowest terms that could sustain it, down in the little village
under the mill; or captivity and Death in the dominant prison on
the crag.
Heralded by a courier in advance, and by the cracking of his
postilion』s whips, which twined snake-like about their heads in the
evening air, as if he came attended by the Furies, Monsieur the
Marquis drew up in his travelling carriage at the posting-house
gate. It was hard by the fountain, and the peasants suspended
their operations to look at him. He looked at them and saw in
them, without knowing it, the slow sure filing down of misery-
worn face and figure, that was to make the meagreness of
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Frenchmen and English superstition which should survive the
truth through the best part of a hundred years.
Monsieur the Marquis cast his eyes over the submissive faces
that drooped before him, as the like of himself had dropped before
Monseigneur of the Court—only the difference was, that these
faces drooped merely to suffer and not to propitiate—when a
grizzled mender of the roads joined the group.
「Bring me hither that fellow!」 said the Marquis to the courier.
The fellow was brought, cap in hand, and the other fellows
closed round to look and listen, in the manner of the people at the
Paris fountain.
「I passed you on the road?」
「Monseigneur, it is true. I had the honour of being passed on
the road.」
「Coming up the hill, and at the top of the hill, both?」
「Monseigneur, it is true.」
「What did you look at so fixedly?」
「Monseigneur, I looked at the man.」
He stooped a little, and with his tattered blue cap pointed under
the carriage. All his fellows stooped to look under the carriage.
「What man, pig? And why look there?」
「Pardon, Monseigneur; he swung by the chain of the shoe—the
drag.」
「Who?」 demanded the traveller.
「Monseigneur, the man.」
「May the Devil carry away these idiots! How do you call the
man? You know all the men of this part of the country. Who was
he?」
「Your clemency, Monseigneur! He was not of this part of the
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country. Of all the days of my life, I never saw him.」
「Swinging by the chain? To be suffocated?」
「With your gracious permission, that was the wonder of it,
Monseigneur. His head hanging over—like this!」
He turned himself sideways to the carriage, and leaned back,
with his face thrown up to the sky, and his head hanging down;
then recovered himself, fumbled with his cap, and made a bow.
「What was he like?」
「Monseigneur, he was whiter than the miller. All covered with
dust, white as a spectre, tall as a spectre!」
The picture produced an immense sensation in the little crowd;
but all eyes, without comparing notes with other eyes, looked at
Monsieur the Marquis. Perhaps, to observe whether he had any
spectre on his conscience.
「Truly, you did well,」 said the Marquis, felicitously sensible
that such vermin were not to ruffle him, 「to see a thief
accompanying my carriage, and not open that great mouth of
yours. Bah! Put him aside, Monsieur Gabelle!」
Monsieur Gabelle was the Postmaster, and some other taxing
functionary united; he had come out with great obsequiousness to
assist at this examination, and had held the examined by the
drapery of his arm in an official manner.
「Bah! Go aside!」 said Monsieur Gabelle.
「Lay hands on this stranger if he seeks to lodge in your village
tonight, and be sure that his business is honest, Gabelle.」
「Monseigneur, I am flattered to devote myself to your orders.」
「Did he run away, fellow?—Where is that Accursed?」
The accursed was already under the carriage with some half-
dozen particular friends, pointing out the chain with his blue cap.
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Some half-dozen other particular friends promptly hauled him
out, and presented him breathless to Monsieur the Marquis.
「Did the man run away, Dolt, when we stopped for the drag?」
「Monseigneur, he precipitated himself over the hillside, head
first, as a person plunges into the river.」
「See to it, Gabelle. Go on!」
The half-dozen who were peering at the chain were still among
the wheels, like sheep; the wheels turned so suddenly that they
were lucky to save their skins and bones; they had very little else
to save, or they might not have been so fortunate.
The burst with which the carriage started out of the village and
up the rise beyond, was soon checked by the steepness of the hill.
Gradually, it subsided to a foot pace, swinging and lumbering
upward among the many sweet scents of a summer night. The
postilions, with a thousand gossamer gnats circling about them in
lieu of the Furies, quietly mended the points to the lashes of their
whips; the valet walked by the horses; the courier was audible,
trotting on ahead into the dim distance.
At the steepest point of the hill there was a little burial-ground,
with a Cross and a new large figure of Our Saviour on it; it was a
poor figure in wood, done by some inexperienced rustic carver,
but he had studied the figure from the life—his own life, maybe—
for it was dreadfully spare and thin.
To this distressful emblem of a great distress that had long been
growing worse, and was not at its worst, a woman was kneeling.
She turned her head as the carriage came up to her, rose quickly,
and presented herself at the carriage-door.
「It is you, Monseigneur! Monseigneur, a petition.」
With an exclamation of impatience, but with his unchangeable
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face, Monseigneur looked out.
「How, then! What is it? Always petitions!」
「Monseigneur. For the love of the great God! My husband, the
forester.」
「What of your husband, the forester? Always the same with you
people. He cannot pay something?」
「He has paid all, Monseigneur. He is dead.」
「Well! He is quiet. Can I restore him to you?」
「Alas, no Monseigneur! But he lies yonder, under a little heap
of poor grass.」
「Well?」
「Monseigneur, there are so many little heaps of poor grass.」
「Again, well?」
She looked an old woman, but was young. Her manner was one
of passionate grief; by turns she clasped her veinous and knotted
hands together with wild energy, and laid one of them on the
carriage-door—tenderly, caressingly, as if it had been a human
breast, and could be expected to feel the appealing touch.
「Monseigneur, hear me! Monseigneur, hear my petition! My
husband died of want; so many die of want; so many more will die
of want.」
「Again, well? Can I feed them?」
「Monseigneur, the good God knows; but I don』t ask it. My
petition is, that a morsel of stone or wood, with my husband』s
name, may be placed over him to show where he lies. Otherwise,
the place will be quickly forgotten, it will never be found when I
am dead of the same malady. I shall be laid under some other heap
of poor grass. Monseigneur, they are so many, they increase so
fast, there is so much want. Monseigneur! Monseigneur!」
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The valet had put her away from the door, the carriage had
broken into a brisk trot, the postilions had quickened the pace, she
was left far behind, and Monseigneur, again escorted by the
Furies, was rapidly diminishing the league or two of distance that
remained between him and his chateau.
The sweet scents of the summer night rose all around him, and
rose, as the rain falls, impartially, on the rusty, ragged, and toilworn group at the fountain not far away; to whom the mender of
roads, with the aid of the blue cap without which he was nothing,
still enlarged upon his man like a spectre, as long as they could
bear it. By degrees, as they could bear no more, they dropped off
one by one, and lights twinkled in little casements; which lights, as
the casements darkened, and more stars came out, seemed to have
shot up into the sky instead of having been extinguished.
The shadow of a large high-roofed house, and of many
overhanging trees, was upon Monsieur the Marquis by that time;
and the shadow was exchanged for the light of a flambeau, as his
carriage stopped, and the great door of his chateau was opened to
him.
「Monsieur Charles, whom I expect; is he arrived from
England?」
「Monseigneur, not yet.」
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Chapter XV
THE GORGON』S HEAD
It was a heavy mass of building, that chateau of Monsieur the
Marquis, with a large stone courtyard before it, and two stone
sweeps of staircase meeting in a stone terrace before the
principal door. A stony business altogether, with heavy stone
balustrades, and stone urns, and stone flowers, and stone faces of
men, and stone heads of lions, in all directions. As if the Gorgon』s
head had surveyed it, when it was finished, two centuries ago.
Upon the broad flight of shallow steps, Monsieur the Marquis,
flambeau preceded, went from his carriage, sufficiently disturbing
the darkness to elicit loud remonstrance from an owl in the roof of
the great pile of stable building away among the trees. All else was
so quiet, that the flambeau carried up the steps, and the other
flambeau held at the great door, burnt as if they were in a close
room of state, instead of being in the open night air. Other sound
than the owl』s voice there was none, save the falling of the
fountain into its stone basin; for, it was one of those dark nights
that hold their breath by the hour together, and then heave a long
low sigh, and hold their breath again.
The great door clanged behind him, and Monsieur the Marquis
crossed a hall grim with certain old boar-spears, swords, and
knives of the chase; grimmer with certain heavy riding-rods and
riding-whips, of which many a peasant, gone to his benefactor
Death, had felt the weight when his lord was angry.
Avoiding the larger rooms, which were dark and made fast for
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the night, Monsieur the Marquis, with his flambeau-bearer going
on before, went up the staircase to a door in a corridor. This
thrown open, admitted him to his own private apartment of three
rooms: his bedchamber and two others. High vaulted rooms with
cool uncarpeted floors, great dogs upon the hearths for the
burning of wood in winter time, and all luxuries befitting the state
of a marquis in a luxurious age and country. The fashion of the last
Louis but one, of the line that was never to break—the fourteenth
Louis—was conspicuous in their rich furniture; but, it was
diversified by many objects that were illustrations of old pages in
the history of France.
A supper-table was laid for two, in the third of the rooms; a
round room, in one of the chateau』s four extinguisher-topped
towers. A small lofty room, with its window wide open, and the
wooden jalousie-blinds closed, so that the dark night only showed
in slight horizontal lines of black, alternating with their broad
lines of stone colour.
「My nephew,」 said the Marquis, glancing at the supper
preparation; 「they said he was not arrived.」
Nor was he; but, he had been expected with Monseigneur.
「Ah! It is not probable he will arrive tonight; nevertheless, leave
the table as it is. I shall be ready in a quarter of an hour.」
In a quarter of an hour Monseigneur was ready, and sat down
alone to his sumptuous and choice supper. His chair was opposite
to the window, and he had taken his soup, and was raising his
glass of Bordeaux to his lips, when he put it down.
「What is that?」 he calmly asked, looking with attention at the
horizontal lines of black and stone colour.
「Monseigneur! That?」
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「Outside the blinds. Open the blinds.」
It was done.
「Well?」
「Monseigneur, it is nothing. The trees and the night are all that
are here.」
The servant who spoke, had thrown the blinds wide, had looked
out into the vacant darkness, and stood, with that blank behind
him, looking round for instructions.
「Good,」 said the imperturbable master. 「Close them again.」
That was done too, and the Marquis went on with his supper.
He was halfway through it, when he again stopped with his glass
in his hand, hearing the sound of wheels. It came on briskly, and
came up to the front of the chateau.
「Ask who is arrived.」
It was the nephew of Monseigneur. He had been some few
leagues behind Monseigneur, early in the afternoon. He had
diminished the distance rapidly, but not so rapidly as to come up
with Monseigneur on the road. He had heard of Monseigneur, at
the posting-houses, as being before him.
He was to be told (said Monseigneur) that supper awaited him
then and there, and that he was prayed to come to it. In a little
while he came. He had been known in England as Charles Darnay.
Monseigneur received him in a courtly manner, but they did
not shake hands.
「You left Paris yesterday, sir?」 he said to Monseigneur, as he
took his seat at table.
「Yesterday. And you?」
「I come direct.」
「From London?」
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「Yes.」
「You have been a long time coming,」 said the Marquis, with a
smile.
「On the contrary; I come direct.」
「Pardon me! I mean, not a long time on the journey; a long time
intending the journey.」
「I have been detained by」—the nephew stopped a moment in
his answer—「various business.」
「Without doubt,」 said the polished uncle.
So long as a servant was present, no other words passed
between them. When coffee had been served and they were alone
together, the nephew, looking at the uncle and meeting the eyes of
the face that was like a fine mask, opened a conversation.
「I have come back, sir, as you anticipate, pursuing the object
that took me away. It carried me into great and unexpected peril;
but it is a sacred object, and if it had carried me to death I hope it
would have sustained me.」
「Not to death,」 said the uncle; 「it is not necessary to say, to
death.」
「I doubt, sir,」 returned the nephew, 「whether, if it had carried
me to the utmost brink of death, you would have cared to stop me
there.」
The deepened marks in the nose, and the lengthening of the
fine straight lines in the cruel face, looked ominous as to that; the
uncle made a graceful gesture of protest, which was so clearly a
slight form of good breeding that it was not reassuring.
「Indeed, sir,」 pursued the nephew, 「for anything I know, you
may have expressly worked to give a more suspicious appearance
to the suspicious circumstances that surrounded me.」
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「No, no, no,」 said the uncle, pleasantly.
「But, however that may be,」 resumed the nephew, glancing at
him with deep distrust, 「I know that your diplomacy would stop
me by any means, and would know no scruple as to means.」
「My friend, I told you so,」 said the uncle, with a fine pulsation
in the two marks. 「Do me the favour to recall that I told you so,
long ago.」
「I recall it.」
「Thank you,」 said the Marquis—very sweetly in deed.
His tone lingered in the air, almost like the tone of a musical
instrument.
「In effect, sir,」 pursued the nephew, 「I believe it to be at once
your bad fortune, and my good fortune, that has kept me out of a
prison in France here.」
「I do not quite understand,」 returned the uncle, sipping his
coffee. 「Dare I ask you to explain?」
「I believe that if you were not in disgrace with the Court, and
had not been overshadowed by that cloud for years past, a letter
de cachet would have sent me to some fortress indefinitely.」
「It is possible,」 said the uncle, with great calmness. 「For the
honour of the family, I could even resolve to incommode you to
that extent. Pray excuse me!」
「I perceive that, happily for me, the Reception of the day before
yesterday was, as usual, a cold one,」 observed the nephew.
「I would not say happily, my friend,」 returned the uncle, with
refined politeness; 「I would not be sure of that. A good
opportunity for consideration, surrounded by the advantages of
solitude, might influence your destiny to far greater advantage
than you influence it for yourself. But it is useless to discuss the
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question. I am, as you say, at a disadvantage. These little
instruments of correction, these gentle aids to the power and
honour of families, these slight favours that might so incommode
you, are only to be obtained now by interest and importunity.
They are sought by so many, and they are granted (comparatively)
to so few! It used not to be so, but France in all such things is
changed for the worse. Our not remote ancestors held the right of
life and death over the surrounding vulgar. From this room, many
such dogs have been taken out to be hanged; in the next room (my
bedroom), one fellow, to our knowledge, was poniarded on the
spot for professing some insolent delicacy respecting his
daughter—his daughter? We have lost many privileges; a new
philosophy has become the mode; and the assertion of our station,
in these days, might (I do not go as far as to say would, but might)
cause us real inconvenience. All very bad, very bad!」
The Marquis took a gentle little pinch of snuff, and shook his
head; as elegantly despondent as he could becomingly be of a
country still containing himself, that great means of regeneration.
「We have so asserted our station, both in the old time and in
the modern time also,」 said the nephew, gloomily, 「that I believe
our name to be more detested than any name in France.」
「Let us hope so,」 said the uncle. 「Detestation of the high is the
involuntary homage of the low.」
「There is not,」 pursued the nephew, in his former tone, 「a face
I can look at, in all this country round about us, which looks at me
with any deference on it but the dark deference of fear and
slavery.」
「A compliment,」 said the Marquis, 「to the grandeur of the
family, merited by the manner in which the family has sustained
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its grandeur. Hah!」 And he took another gentle little pinch of
snuff, and lightly crossed his legs.
But, when his nephew, leaning an elbow on the table, covered
his eyes thoughtfully and dejectedly with his hand, the fine mask
looked at him sideways with a stronger concentration of keenness,
closeness, and dislike, than was comportable with its wearer』s
assumption of indifference.
「Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference
of fear and slavery, my friend,」 observed the Marquis, 「will keep
the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof,」 looking up to
it, 「shuts out the sky.」
That might not be so long as the Marquis supposed. If a picture
of the chateau as it was to be a very few years hence, and of fifty
like it as they too were to be a very few years hence, could have
been shown to him that night, he might have been at a loss to
claim his own from the ghastly, fire-charred, plunder-wrecked
ruins. As for the roof he vaunted, he might have found that
shutting out the sky in a new way—to wit, for ever, from the eyes
of the bodies into which its lead was fired, out of the barrels of a
hundred thousand muskets.
「Meanwhile,」 said the Marquis, 「I will preserve the honour and
repose of the family if you will not. But you must be fatigued. Shall
we terminate our conference for the night?」
「A moment more.」
「An hour, if you please.」
「Sir,」 said the nephew, 「we have done wrong, and are reaping
the fruits of wrong.」
「We have done wrong?」 repeated the Marquis, with an
inquiring smile, and delicately pointing, first to his nephew, then
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to himself.
「Our family; our honourable family, whose honour is of so
much account to both of us, in such different ways. Even in my
father』s time, we did a world of wrong, injuring every human
creature who came between us and our pleasure, whatever it was.
Why need I speak of my father』s time, when it is equally yours?
Can I separate my father』s twin-brother, joint inheritor, and next
successor, from himself?」
「Death has done that!」 said the Marquis.
「And has left me,」 answered the nephew, 「bound to a system
that is frightful to me, responsible for it, but powerless in it;
seeking to execute the last request of my dear mother』s lips, and
obey the last look of my dear mother』s eyes, which implored me to
have mercy and to redress; and tortured by seeking assistance and
power in vain.」
「Seeking them from me, my nephew,」 said the Marquis,
touching him on the breast with his forefinger—they were now
standing by the hearth—「you will for ever seek them in vain, be
assured.」
Every fine straight line in the clear whiteness of his face, was
cruelly, craftily, and closely compressed, while he stood looking
quietly at his nephew, with his snuff-box in his hand. Once again
he touched him on the breast, as though his finger were the fine
point of a small sword, with which, in delicate finesse, he ran him
through the body, and said, 「My friend, I will die, perpetuating the
system under which I have lived.」
When he had said it, he took a culminating pinch of snuff, and
put his box in his pocket.
「Better to be a rational creature,」 he added then, after ringing a
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small bell on the table, 「and accept your natural destiny. But you
are lost, Monsieur Charles, I see.」
「This property and France are lost to me,」 said the nephew,
sadly; 「I renounce them.」
「Are they both yours to renounce? France may be, but is the
property? It is scarcely worth mentioning; but, is it yet?」
「I had no intention, in the words I used, to claim it yet. If it
passed to me from you, tomorrow—」
「Which I have the vanity to hope is not probable.」
「—or twenty years hence—」
「You do me too much honour,」 said the Marquis; 「still, I prefer
that supposition.」
「—I would abandon it, and live otherwise and elsewhere. It is
little to relinquish. What is it but a wilderness of misery and ruin!」
「Hah!」 said the Marquis, glancing round the luxurious room.
「To the eye it is fair enough, here; but seen in its integrity,
under the sky, and by the daylight, it is a crumbling tower of
waste, mismanagement, extortion, debt, mortgage, oppression,
hunger, nakedness, and suffering.」
「Hah!」 said the Marquis again, in a well-satisfied manner.
「If it ever becomes mine, it shall be put into some hands better
qualified to free it slowly (if such a thing is possible) from the
weight that drags it down, so that the miserable people who
cannot leave it and who have been long wrung to the last point of
endurance, may, in another generation, suffer less; but it is not for
me. There is a curse on it, and on all this land.」
「And you?」 said the uncle. 「Forgive my curiosity; do you,
under your new philosophy, graciously intend to live?」
「I must do, to live, what others of my countrymen, even with
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nobility at their backs, may have to do some day—work.」
「In England, for example?」
「Yes. The family honour, sir, is safe from me in this country.
The family name can suffer from me in no other, for I bear it in no
other.」
The ringing of the bell had caused the adjoining bed-chamber
to be lighted. It now shone brightly, through the door of
communication. The Marquis looked that way, and listened for the
retreating step of his valet.
「England is very attractive to you, seeing how indifferently you
have prospered there,」 he observed then, turning his calm face to
his nephew with a smile.
「I have already said, that for my prospering there, I am sensible
I may be indebted to you, sir. For the rest, it is my Refuge.」
「They say, those boastful English, that it is the Refuge of many.
You know a compatriot who has found a Refuge there? A Doctor?」
「Yes.」
「With a daughter?」
「Yes.」
「Yes,」 said the Marquis. 「You are fatigued. Good night!」
As he bent his head in his most courtly manner, there was a
secrecy in his smiling face, and he conveyed an air of mystery to
those words, which struck the eyes and ears of his nephew
forcibly. At the same time, the thin straight lines of the setting of
the eyes, and the thin straight lips, and the markings in the nose,
curved with a sarcasm that looked handsomely diabolic.
「Yes,」 repeated the Marquis. 「A Doctor with a daughter. Yes.
So commences the new philosophy! You are fatigued. Good
night!」
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It would have been of as much avail to interrogate any stone
face outside the chateau as to interrogate that face of his. The
nephew looked at him, in vain, in passing on to the door.
「Good night!」 said the uncle. 「I look to the pleasure of seeing
you again in the morning. Good repose! Light Monsieur my
nephew to his chamber there!—And burn Monsieur my nephew in
his bed, if you will,」 he added to himself, before he rang his little
bell again, and summoned his valet to his own bedroom.
The valet come and gone, Monsieur the Marquis walked to and
fro in his loose chamber-robe, to prepare himself gently for sleep,
that hot still night. Rustling about the room, his softly-slippered
feet making no noise on the floor, he moved like a refined tiger:—
looked like some enchanted marquis of the impenitently wicked
sort, in story, whose periodical change into tiger form was either
just going off, or just coming on.
He moved from end to end of his voluptuous bed room, looking
again at the scraps of the day』s journey that came unbidden into
his mind; the slow toil up the hill at sunset, the setting sun, the
descent, the mill, the prison on the crag, the little village in the
hollow, the peasants at the fountain, and the mender of roads with
his blue cap pointing out the chain under the carriage. That
fountain suggested the Paris fountain, the little bundle lying on
the step, the woman bending over it, and the tall man with his
arms up, crying, 「Dead!」
「I am cool now,」 said Monsieur the Marquis, 「and may go to
bed.」
So, leaving only one light burning on the large hearth, he let his
thin gauze curtains fall around him, and heard the night break its
silence with a long sigh as he composed himself to sleep.
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The stone faces on the outer walls stared blindly at the black
night for three heavy hours; for three heavy hours, the horses in
the stables rattled at their racks, the dogs barked, and the owl
made a noise with very little resemblance in it to the noise
conventionally assigned to the owl by men-poets. But it is the
obstinate custom of such creatures hardly ever to say what is set
down for them.
For three heavy hours, the stone faces of the chateau, lion and
human, stared blindly at the night. Dead darkness lay on all the
landscape, dead darkness added its own hush to the hushing dust
on all the roads. The burial-place had got to the pass that its little
heaps of poor grass were undistinguishable from one another; the
figure on the Cross might have come down, for anything that could
be seen of it. In the village: taxers and taxed were fast asleep.
Dreaming, perhaps, of banquets, as the starved usually do, and of
ease and rest, as the driven slave and the yoked ox may, its lean
inhabitants slept soundly, and were fed and freed.
The fountain in the village flowed unseen and unheard, and the
fountain at the chateau dropped unseen and unheard—both
melting away, like the minutes that were falling from the spring of
Time—through three dark hours. Then, the grey water of both
began to be ghostly in the light, and the eyes of the stone faces of
the chateau were opened.
Lighter and lighter, until at last the sun touched the tops of the
still trees, and poured its radiance over the hill. In the glow, the
water of the chateau fountain seemed to turn to blood, and the
stone faces crimsoned. The carol of the birds was loud and high,
and, on the weather-beaten sill of the great window of the bedchamber of Monsieur the Marquis, one little bird sang its sweetest
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song with all its might. At this, the nearest stone face seemed to
stare amazed, and, with open mouth and dropped under-jaw,
looked awe-stricken.
Now, the sun was full up, and movement began in the village.
Casement windows opened, crazy doors were unbarred, and
people came forth shivering—chilled, as yet, by the new sweet air.
Then began the rarely lightened toil of the day among the village
population. Some to the fountain; some, to the fields; men and
women here, to dig and delve; men and women there, to see to the
poor livestock, and lead the bony cows out, to such pasture as
could be found by the roadside. In the church and at the Cross, a
kneeling figure or two; attendant on the latter prayers, the led
cow, trying for a breakfast among the weeds at its foot.
The chateau awoke later, as became its quality, but awoke
gradually and surely. First, the lonely boar-spears and knives of
the chase had been reddened as of old; then, had gleamed
trenchant in the morning sunshine; now, doors and windows were
thrown open, horses in their stables looked round over their
shoulders at the light and freshness pouring in at doorways, leaves
sparkled and rustled at iron-grated windows, dogs pulled hard at
their chains, and reared impatient to be loosed.
All these trivial incidents belonged to the routine of life and the
return of morning. Surely, not so the ringing of the great bell of
the chateau, nor the running up and down the stairs; nor the
hurried figures on the terrace; nor the booting and tramping here
and there and everywhere, nor the quick saddling of horses and
riding away?
What winds conveyed this hurry to the grizzled mender of
roads, already at work on the hill-top beyond the village, with his
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day』s dinner (not much to carry) lying in a bundle that it was
worth no crow』s while to peck at, on a heap of stones? Had the
birds, carrying some grains of it to a distance, dropped one over
him as they sow chance seeds? Whether or no, the mender of
roads ran, on the sultry morning, as if for his life, down the hill,
knee-high in dust, and never stopped till he got to the fountain.
All the people of the village were at the fountain, standing about
in their depressed manner, and whispering low, but showing no
other emotions than grim curiosity and surprise. The led cows,
hastily brought in and tethered to anything that would hold them,
were looking stupidly on, or lying down chewing the cud of
nothing particularly repaying their trouble, which they had picked
up in their interrupted saunter. Some of the people of the chateau,
and some of those of the posting-house, and all the taxing
authorities, were armed more or less, and were crowded on the
other side of the little street in a purposeless way, that was highly
fraught with nothing. Already, the mender of roads had
penetrated into the midst of a group of fifty particular friends, and
was smiting himself in the breast with his blue cap. What did all
this portend, and what portended the swift hoisting-up of
Monsieur Gabelle behind a servant on horseback, and the
conveying away of the said Gabelle (double-laden though the
horse was), at a gallop, like a new version of the German ballad of
Leonora?
It portended that there was one stone face too many, up at the
chateau.
The Gorgon had surveyed the building again in the night, and
had added the one stone face wanting; the stone face for which it
had waited through about two hundred years.
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It lay back on the pillow of Monsieur the Marquis. It was like a
fine mask, suddenly startled, made angry, and petrified. Driven
home into the heart of the stone figure attached to it, was a knife.
Round its hilt was a frill of paper, on which was scrawled:
「Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.」
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Chapter XVI
TWO PROMISES
More months, to the number of twelve, had come and
gone, and Mr. Charles Darnay was established in
England as a higher teacher of the French language
who was conversant with French literature. In this age, he would
have been a Professor; in that age he was a Tutor. He read with
young men who could find any leisure and interest for the study of
a living tongue spoken all over the world, and he cultivated a taste
for its stores of knowledge and fancy. He could write of them,
besides, in sound English, and render them into sound English.
Such masters were not at that time easily found; Princes that had
been, and Kings that were to be, were not yet of the Teacher class,
and no ruined nobility had dropped out of Tellson』s ledgers, to
turn cooks and carpenters. As a tutor, whose attainments made
the student』s way unusually pleasant and profitable, and as an
elegant translator who brought something to his work besides
mere dictionary knowledge, young Mr. Darnay soon became
known and encouraged. He was well acquainted, moreover, with
the circumstances of his country, and those were of ever-growing
interest. So, with great perseverance and untiring industry, he
prospered.
In London, he had expected neither to walk on pavements of
gold, nor to lie on beds of roses; if he had had any such exalted
expectation, he would not have prospered. He had expected
labour, and he found it, and did it, and made the best of it. In this,
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his prosperity consisted.
A certain portion of his time was passed at Cambridge, where
he read with undergraduates as a sort of tolerated smuggler who
drove a contraband trade in European languages, instead of
conveying Greek and Latin through the Custom-house. The rest of
his time he passed in London.
Now, from the days when it was always summer in Eden, to
these days when it is mostly winter in fallen latitudes, the world of
a man has invariably gone one way—Charles Darnay』s way—the
way of the love of a woman.
He had loved Lucie Manette from the hour of his danger. He
had never heard a sound so sweet and dear as the sound of her
compassionate voice; he had never seen a face so tenderly
beautiful, as hers when it was confronted with his own on the edge
of the grave that had been dug for him. But, he had not yet spoken
to her on the subject; the assassination at the deserted chateau far
away beyond the heaving water, and the long, long, dusty roads—
the solid stone chateau which had itself become the mere mist of a
dream—had been done a year, and he had never yet, by so much
as a single spoken word, disclosed to her the state of his heart.
That he had his reasons for this, he knew full well. It was again
a summer day when, lately arrived in London from his college
occupation, he turned into the quiet corner in Soho, bent on
seeking an opportunity of opening his mind to Doctor Manette. It
was the close of the summer day, and he knew Lucie to be out
with Miss Pross.
He found the Doctor reading in his armchair at a window. The
energy which had at once supported him under his old sufferings
and aggravated their sharpness, had been gradually restored to
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him. He was now a very energetic man indeed, with great firmness
of purpose, strength of resolution, and vigour of action. In his
recovered energy he was sometimes a little fitful and sudden, as he
had at first been in the exercise of his other recovered faculties;
but, this had never been frequently observable, and had grown
more and more rare.
He studied much, slept little, sustained a great deal of fatigue
with ease, and was equably cheerful. To him, now entered Charles
Darnay, at sight of whom he laid aside his book and held out his
hand.
「Charles Darnay! I rejoice to see you. We have been counting
on your return these three or four days past. Mr. Stryver and
Sydney Carton were both here yesterday, and both made you out
to be more than due.」
「I am obliged to them for their interest in the matter,」 he
answered, a little coldly as to them, though very warmly as to the
Doctor. 「Miss Manette—「
「Is well,」 said the Doctor, as he stopped short, 「and your return
will delight us all. She has gone out on some household matters,
but will soon be home.」
「Doctor Manette, I knew she was from home. I took the
opportunity of her being from home, to beg to speak to you.」
There was a blank silence.
「Yes?」 said the Doctor, with evident constraint. 「Bring your
chair here, and speak on.」
He complied as to the chair, but appeared to find the speaking
on less easy.
「I have had the happiness, Doctor Manette, of being so intimate
here,」 so he at length began, 「for some year and a half, that I hope
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the topic on which I am about to touch may not—」 He was stayed
by the Doctor』s putting out his hand to stop him. When he had
kept it so a little while, he said, drawing it back:
「Is Lucie the topic?」
「She is.」
「It is hard for me to speak of her at any time. It is very hard for
me to hear her spoken of in that tone of yours, Charles Darnay.」
「It is a tone of fervent admiration, true homage, and deep love,
Doctor Manette!」 he said deferentially.
There was another blank silence before her father rejoined:
「I believe it. I do you justice; I believe it.」
His constraint was so manifest, and it was so manifest, too, that
it originated in an unwillingness to approach the subject, that
Charles Darnay hesitated.
「Shall I go on, sir?」
Another blank.
「Yes, go on.」
「You anticipate what I would say, though you can not know
how earnestly I say it, how earnestly I feel it, without knowing my
secret heart, and the hopes and fears and anxieties with which it
has long been laden. Dear Doctor Manette, I love your daughter
fondly, dearly, disinterestedly, devotedly. If ever there were love in
the world, I love her. You have loved yourself; let your old love
speak for me!」
The Doctor sat with his face turned away, and his eyes bent on
the ground. At the last words, he stretched out his hand again,
hurriedly, and cried:
「Not that, sir! Let that be! I adjure you, do not recall that!」
His cry was so like a cry of actual pain, that it rang in Charles
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Darnay』s ears long after he had ceased. He motioned with the
hand he had extended, and it seemed to be an appeal to Darnay to
pause. The latter so received it, and remained silent.
「I ask your pardon,」 said the Doctor, in a subdued tone, and
after some moments. 「I do not doubt your loving Lucie; you may
be satisfied of it.」
He turned towards him in his chair, but did not look at him, or
raise his eyes. His chin dropped upon his hand, and his white hair
overshadowed his face:
「Have you spoken to Lucie?」
「No.」
「Nor written?」
「Never.」
「It would be ungenerous to affect not to know that your self-
denial is to be referred to your consideration for her father. Her
father thanks you.」
He offered his hand; but his eyes did not go with it.
「I know,」 said Darnay, respectfully, 「how can I fail to know,
Doctor Manette, I who have seen you together from day to day,
that between you and Miss Manette there is an affection so
unusual, so touching, so belonging to the circumstances in which
it has been nurtured, that it can have few parallels, even in the
tenderness between a father and child. I know, Doctor Manette—
how can I fail to know—that, mingled with the affection and duty
of a daughter who has become a woman, there is, in her heart,
towards you, all the love and reliance of infancy itself. I know that,
as in her childhood she had no parent, so she is now devoted to
you with all the constancy and fervour of her present years and
character, united to the trustfulness and attachment of the early
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days in which you were lost to her. I know perfectly well that if you
had been restored to her from the world beyond this life, you
could hardly be invested, in her sight, with a more sacred
character than that in which you are always with her. I know that
when she is clinging to you, the hands of baby, girl, and woman, all
in one, are round your neck. I know that in loving you she sees and
loves her mother at her own age, sees and loves you at my age,
loves her mother broken-hearted, loves you through your dreadful
trial and in your blessed restoration. I have known this, night and
day, since I have known you in your home.」
Her father sat silent, with his face bent down. His breathing
was a little quickened; but he repressed all other signs of agitation.
「Dear Doctor Manette, always knowing this, always seeing her
and you with this hallowed light about you, I have forborne, and
forborne, as long as it was in the nature of man to do it. I have felt,
and do even now feel, that to bring my love—even mine—between
you, is to touch your history with something not quite so good as
itself. But I love her. Heaven is my witness that I love her!」
「I believe it,」 answered her father, mournfully. 「I have thought
so before now. I believe it.」
「But, do not believe,」 said Darnay, upon whose ear the
mournful voice struck with a reproachful sound, 「that if my
fortune were so cast as that, being one day so happy as to make
her my wife, I must at any time put any separation between her
and you, I could or would breathe a word of what I now say.
Besides that I should know it to be hopeless, I should know it to be
a baseness. If I had any such possibility, even at a remote distance
of years, harboured in my thoughts, and hidden in my heart—if it
ever had been there—if it ever could be there—I could not now
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touch this honoured hand.」
He laid his own upon it as he spoke.
「No, dear Doctor Manette. Like you, a voluntary exile from
France; like you, driven from it by its distractions, oppressions,
and miseries; like you, striving to live away from it by my own
exertions, and trusting in a happier future; I look only to sharing
your fortunes, sharing your life and home, and being faithful to
you to the death, Not to divide with Lucie her privilege as your
child, companion, and friend; but to come in aid of it, and bind her
closer to you, if such a thing can be.」
His touch still lingered on her father』s hand. Answering the
touch for a moment, but not coldly, her father rested his hands
upon the arms of his chair, and looked up for the first time since
the beginning of the conference. A struggle was evident in his face;
a struggle with that occasional look which had a tendency in it to
dark doubt and dread.
「You speak so feelingly and so manfully, Charles Darnay, that I
thank you with all my heart, and will open all my heart—or nearly
so. Have you any reason to believe that Lucie loves you?」
「None. As yet none.」
「Is it the immediate object of this confidence, that you may at
once ascertain that, with my knowledge?」
「Not even so. I might not have the hopefulness to do it for
weeks; I might (mistaken or not mistaken) have that hopefulness
tomorrow.」
「Do you seek any promise from me?」
「I ask none, sir. But I have thought it possible that you might
have it in your power, if you should deem it right, to give me
some.」
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「Do you seek any promise from me!」
「I do seek that.」
「What is it?」
「I well understand that, without you, I could have no hope. I
well understand that, even if Miss Manette held me at this
moment in her innocent heart—do not think I have the
presumption to assume so much—I could retain no place in it
against her love for her father.」
「If that be so, do you see what, on the other hand, is involved in
it?」
「I understand equally well, that a word from her father in any
suitor』s favour, would outweigh herself and all the world. For
which reason, Doctor Manette.」 said Darnay, modestly but firmly,
「I would not ask that word, to save my life.」
「I am sure of it. Charles Darnay, mysteries arise out of close
love, as well as out of wide division; in the former case, they are
subtle and delicate, and difficult to penetrate. My daughter Lucie
is, in this one respect, such a mystery to me; I can make no guess
at the state of her heart.」
「May I ask, sir, if you think she is—」 As he hesitated, her father
supplied the rest.
「Is sought by any other suitor?」
「It is what I meant to say.」
Her father considered a little before he answered:
「You have seen Mr. Carton here, yourself. Mr. Stryver is here
too, occasionally. If it be at all, it can only be by one of these.」
「Or both,」 said Darnay.
「I had not thought of both; I should not think either, likely, You
want a promise from me. Tell me what it is.」
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「It is, that if Miss Manette should bring to you at any time, on
her own part, such a confidence as I have ventured to lay before
you, you will bear testimony to what I have said, and to your belief
in it. I hope you may be able to think so well of me, as to urge no
influence against me, I say nothing more of my stake in this; this is
what I ask. The condition on which I ask it, and which you have an
undoubted right to require, I will observe immediately.」
「I give the promise,」 said the Doctor, 「without any condition. I
believe your object to be, purely and truthfully, as you have stated
it. I believe your intention is to perpetuate, and not to weaken, the
ties between me and my other and far dearer self. If she should
ever tell me that you are essential to her perfect happiness, I will
give her to you. If there were—Charles Darnay—if there were—」
The young man had taken his hand gratefully; their hands were
joined as the Doctor spoke:
「—any fancies, any reasons, any apprehensions, anything
whatsoever, new or old, against the man she really loved—the
direct responsibility thereof not lying on his head—they should all
be obliterated for her sake. She is everything to me; more to me
than suffering, more to me than wrong, more to me—Well! This is
idle talk.」
So strange was the way in which he faded into silence, and so
strange his fixed look when he had ceased to speak, that Darnay
felt his own hand turn cold in the hand that slowly released and
dropped it.
「You said something to me,」 said Doctor Manette, breaking
into a smile. 「What was it you said to me?」
He was at a loss how to answer, until he remembered having
spoken of a condition. Relieved as his mind reverted to that, he
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answered:
「Your confidence in me ought to be returned with full
confidence on my part. My present name, though but slightly
changed from my mother』s, is not, as you will remember, my own.
I wish to tell you what that is, and why I am in England.」
「Stop!」 said the Doctor of Beauvais.
「I wish it, that I may the better deserve your confidence, and
have no secret from you.」
「Stop.」
For an instant, the Doctor even had his two hands at his ears;
for another instant, even had his two hands laid on Darnay』s lips.
「Tell me when I ask you, not now. If your suit should prosper, if
Lucie should love you, you shall tell me on your marriage
morning. Do you promise?」
「Willingly.」
「Give me your hand. She will be home directly, and it is better
she should not see us together tonight, Go! God bless you!」
It was dark when Charles Darnay left him, and it was an hour
later and darker when Lucie came home; she hurried into the
room alone—for Miss Pross had gone straight upstairs—and was
surprised to find his reading-chair empty.
「My father!」 she called to him. 「Father dear!」
Nothing was said in answer, but she heard a low hammering
sound in the bedroom. Passing lightly across the intermediate
room, she looked in at his door and came running back frightened,
crying to herself, with her blood all chilled, 「What shall I do! What
shall I do!」
Her uncertainty lasted but a moment; she hurried back and
tapped at his door, and softly called to him. The noise ceased at
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the sound of her voice, and he presently came out to her, and they
walked up and down together for a long time.
She came down from her bed to look at him in his sleep that
night. He slept, heavily, and his tray of shoe-making tools, and his
old unfinished work, were all as usual.
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Chapter XVII
A COMPANION PICTURE
S ydney,」 said Mr. Stryver, on that selfsame night, or
morning, to his jackal; 「mix another bowl of punch; I have
something to say to you,」 Sydney had been working double
tides that night, and the night before, and the night before that,
and a good many nights in succession, making a grand clearance
among Mr. Stryver』s papers before the setting in of the long
vacation. The clearance was effected at last; the Stryver arrears
were handsomely fetched up; everything was got rid of until
November should come with its fogs atmospheric and fogs legal,
and bring grist to the mill again.
Sydney was none the livelier and none the soberer for so much
application. It had taken a deal of extra wet-towelling to pull him
through the night; a correspondingly extra quantity of wine had
preceded the towelling; and he was in a very damaged condition,
as he now pulled his turban off and threw it into the basin in
which he had steeped it at intervals for the last six hours.
「Are you mixing that other bowl of punch?」 said Stryver the
portly, with his hands in his waistband, glancing round from the
sofa where he lay on his back.
「I am.」
「Now, look here! I am going to tell you something that will
rather surprise you, and that perhaps will make you think me not
quite as shrewd as you usually do think me. I intend to marry.」
「Do you?」
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「Yes. And not for money. What do you say now?」
「I don』t feel disposed to say much. Who is she?」
「Guess.」
「Do I know her?」
「Guess.」
「I am not going to guess, at five o』clock in the morning, with my
brains frying and sputtering in my head. If you want me to guess,
you must ask me to dinner.」
「Well then, I』ll tell you,」 said Stryver, coming slowly into a
sitting posture. 「Sydney, I rather despair of making myself
intelligible to you, because you are such an insensible dog.」
「And you,」 returned Sydney, busy concocting the punch, 「are
such a sensitive and poetical spirit.」
「Come!」 rejoined Stryver, laughing boastfully, 「though I don』t
prefer any claim to being the soul of Romance (for I hope I know
better), still I am a tenderer sort of fellow than you.」
「You are a luckier, if you mean that.」
「I don』t mean that. I mean I am a man of more—more—」
「Say gallantry, while you are about it,」 suggested Carton.
「Well! I』ll say gallantry. My meaning is that I am a man,」 said
Stryver, inflating himself at his friend, as he made the punch,
「who cares more to be agreeable, who takes more pains to be
agreeable, who knows better how to be agreeable, in a woman』s
society, than you do.」
「Go on,」 said Sydney Carton.
「No; but before I go on,」 said Stryver, shaking his head in his
bullying way, 「I』ll have this out with you. You』ve been at Dr.
Manette』s house as much as I have, or more than I have. Why, I
have been ashamed of your moroseness there! Your manners have
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been of that silent and sullen and hang-dog kind, that, upon my
life and soul, I have been ashamed of you, Sydney!」
「It should be very beneficial to a man in your practice at the
bar, to be ashamed of anything,」 returned Sydney; 「you ought to
be much obliged to me.」
「You shall not get off in that way,」 rejoined Stryver,
shouldering the rejoinder at him; 「no Sydney, it』s my duty to tell
you—and I tell you to your face to do you good—that you are a
devilish ill-conditioned fellow in that sort of society. You are a
disagreeable fellow.」
Sydney drank a bumper of the punch he had made, and
laughed.
「Look at me!」 said Stryver, squaring himself; 「I have less need
to make myself agreeable than you have, being more independent
in circumstances. Why do I do it?」
「I never saw you do it yet,」 muttered Carton.
「I do it because it』s politic; I do it on principle. And look at me! I
get on.」
「You don』t get on with your account of your matrimonial
intentions,」 answered Carton, with a careless air; 「I wish you
would keep to that. As to me—will you never understand that I am
incorrigible?」
He asked the question with some appearance of scorn.
「You have no business to be incorrigible,」 was his friend』s
answer, delivered in no very soothing tone.
「I have no business to be, at all, that I know of,」 said Sydney
Carton. 「Who is the lady?」
「Now, don』t let my announcement of the name make you
uncomfortable, Sydney,」 said Mr. Stryver, preparing him with
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ostentatious friendliness for the disclosure he was about to make,
「because I know you don』t mean half you say; and if you meant it
all, it would be of no importance. I make this little preface, because
you once mentioned the young lady to me in slighting terms.」
「I did?」
「Certainly; and in these chambers.」
Sydney Carton looked at his punch and looked at his
complacent friend; drank his punch and looked at his complacent
friend.
「You made mention of the young lady as a golden haired doll.
The young lady is Miss Manette. If you had been a fellow of any
sensitiveness or delicacy of feeling that kind of way, Sydney, I
might have been a little resentful of your employing such a
designation; but you are not. You want that sense altogether;
therefore I am no more annoyed when I think of the expression,
than I should be annoyed by a man』s opinion of a picture of mine,
who had no eye for pictures: or of a piece of music of mine, who
had no ear for music.」
Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it by
bumpers, looking at his friend.
「Now you know all about it, Syd,」 said Mr. Stryver. 「I don』t
care about fortune: she is a charming creature, and I have made
up my mind to please myself: on the whole, I think I can afford to
please myself. She will have in me a man already pretty well off,
and a rapidly rising man, and a man of some distinction: it is a
piece of good fortune for her, but she is worthy of good fortune.
Are you astonished?」
Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, 「Why should I be
astonished?」
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「You approve?」
Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, 「Why should I not
approve?」
「Well!」 said his friend Stryver, 「you take it more easily than I
fancied you would, and are less mercenary on my behalf than I
thought you would be; though, to be sure, you know well enough
by this time that your ancient chum is a man of a pretty strong
will. Yes, Sydney, I have had enough of this style of life, with no
other as a change from it; I feel that it is a pleasant thing for a man
to have a home when he feels inclined to go to it (when he doesn』t,
he can stay away), and I feel that Miss Manette will tell well in any
station, and will always do me credit. So I have made up my mind.
And now, Sydney, old boy, I want to say a word to you about your
prospects. You are in a bad way, you know; you really are in a bad
way. You don』t know the value of money, you live hard, you』ll
knock up one of these days, and be ill and poor; you really ought to
think about a nurse.」
The prosperous patronage with which he said it, made him look
twice as big as he was, and four times as offensive.
「Now let me recommend you,」 pursued Stryver, 「to look it in
the face. I have looked it in the face, in my different way; look it in
the face, you, in your different way. Marry. Provide somebody to
take care of you. Never mind your having no enjoyment of
woman』s society, nor understanding of it, nor tact for it. Find out
somebody. Find out some respectable woman with a little
property—somebody in the landlady way, or lodging-letting way—
and marry her, against a rainy day. That』s the kind of thing for
you. Now think of it, Sydney.」
「I』ll think of it,」 said Sydney.
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Chapter XVIII
THE FELLOW OF DELICACY
Mr. Stryver having made up his mind to that
magnanimous bestowal of good fortune on the Doctor』s
daughter, resolved to make her happiness known to her
before he left town for the Long Vacation. After some mental
debating of the point, he came to the conclusion that it would be as
well to get all the preliminaries done with, and they could then
arrange at their leisure whether he should give her his hand a
week or two before Michaelmas Term, or in the little Christmas
vacation between it and Hilary.
As to the strength of his case, he had not a doubt about it, but
clearly saw his way to the verdict. Argued with the jury on
substantial worldly grounds—the only grounds ever worth taking
into account—it was a plain case, and had not a weak spot in it. He
called himself for the plaintiff, there was no getting over his
evidence, the counsel for the defendant threw up his brief, and the
jury did not even turn to consider. After trying it, Stryver, C.J.,
was satisfied that no plainer case could be.
Accordingly, Mr. Stryver inaugurated the Long Vacation with a
formal proposal to take Miss Manette to Vauxhall Gardens; that
failing, to Ranelagh; that unaccountably failing too, it behoved him
to present himself in Soho, and there declare his noble mind.
Towards Soho, therefore, Mr. Stryver shouldered his way from
the Temple, while the bloom of the Long Vacation』s infancy was
still upon it. Anybody who had seen him projecting himself into
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Soho while he was yet on St. Dunstan』s side of Temple Bar,
bursting in his full-blown way along the pavement, to the
jostlement of all weaker people, might have seen how safe and
strong he was.
His way taking him past Tellson』s, and he both banking at
Tellson』s and knowing Mr. Lorry as the intimate friend of the
Manettes, it entered Mr. Stryver』s mind to enter the bank, and
reveal to Mr. Lorry the brightness of the Soho horizon. So, he
pushed open the door with the weak rattle in its throat, stumbled
down the two steps, got past the two ancient cashiers, and
shouldered himself into the musty back closet where Mr. Lorry sat
at great books ruled for figures, with perpendicular iron bars to
his window as if that was ruled for figures too, and everything
under the clouds were a sum.
「Halloa!」 said Mr. Stryver, 「How do you do? I hope you are
well!」
It was Stryver』s grand peculiarity that he always seemed too big
for any place, or space. He was so much too big for Tellson』s, that
old clerks in distant corners looked up with looks of remonstrance,
as though he squeezed them against the wall. The House itself,
magnificently reading the paper quite in the far-off perspective,
lowered displeased, as if the Stryver head had been butted into its
responsible waistcoat.
The discreet Mr. Lorry said, in a sample tone of the voice he
would recommend under the circumstances, 「How do you do, Mr.
Stryver? How do you do, sir?」 and shook hands. There was a
peculiarity in his manner of shaking hands, always to be seen in
any clerk at Tellson』s who shook hands with a customer when the
House pervaded the air. He shook in a self-abnegating way, as one
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who shook for Tellson & Co.
「Can I do anything for you, Mr. Stryver?」 asked Mr. Lorry, in
his business character.
「Why, no, thank you; this is a private visit to yourself, Mr.
Lorry; I have come for a private word.」
「Oh indeed!」 said Mr. Lorry, bending down his ear, while his
eye strayed to the House afar off.
「I am going,」 said Mr. Stryver, leaning his arms confidently on
the desk: whereupon, although it was a large double one, there
appeared to be not half desk enough for him: 「I am going to make
an offer of myself in marriage to your agreeable little friend, Miss
Manette, Mr. Lorry.」
「Oh dear me!」 cried Mr. Lorry, rubbing his chin, and looking at
his visitor dubiously.
「Oh dear me, sir?」 repeated Stryver, drawing back. 「Oh dear
you, sir? What may your meaning be, Mr. Lorry?」
「My meaning,」 answered the man of business, 「is, of course,
friendly and appreciative, and that it does you the greatest credit,
and—in short, my meaning is everything you could desire. But—
really you know, Mr. Stryver—」 Mr. Lorry paused, and shook his
head at him in the oddest manner, as if he were compelled against
his will to add, internally, 「You know there really is so much too
much of you!」
「Well!」 said Stryver, slapping the desk with his contentious
hand, opening his eyes wider, and taking a long breath, 「if I
understand you, Mr. Lorry, I』ll be hanged!」
Mr. Lorry adjusted his little wig at both ears as a means
towards that end, and bit the feather of a pen.
「D—n it all, sir!」 said Stryver, staring at him, 「am I not
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eligible?」
「Oh dear yes! Yes. Oh yes, you』re eligible!」 said Mr. Lorry. 「If
you say eligible, you are eligible.」
「Am I not prosperous?」 asked Stryver.
「Oh! if you come to prosperous, you are prosperous,」 said Mr.
Lorry.
「And advancing?」
「If you come to advancing, you know,」 said Mr. Lorry,
delighted to be able to make another admission, 「nobody can
doubt that.」
「Then what on earth is your meaning, Mr. Lorry?」 demanded
Stryver, perceptibly crestfallen.
「Well! I—Were you going there now?」 asked Mr. Lorry.
「Straight!」 said Stryver, with a plump of his fist on the desk.
「Then I think I wouldn』t, if I was you.」
「Why,」 said Stryver. 「Now, I』ll put you in a corner,」 forensically
shaking a forefinger at him. 「You are a man of business and bound
to have a reason. State your reason. Why wouldn』t you go?」
「Because,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「I wouldn』t go on such an object
without having some cause to believe that I should succeed.」
「D—n ME!」 cried Stryver, 「but this beats everything.」
Mr. Lorry glanced at the distant House, and glanced at the
angry Stryver.
「Here』s a man of business—a man of years—a man of
experience—in a bank,」 said Stryver; 「and having summed up
three leading reasons for complete success, he says there』s no
reason at all! Says it with his head on!」 Mr. Stryver remarked
upon the peculiarity as if it would have been infinitely less
remarkable if he had said it with his head off.
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「When I speak of success, I speak of success with the young
lady; and when I speak of causes and reasons to make success
probable, I speak of causes and reasons that will tell as such with
the young lady. The young lady, my good sir,」 said Mr. Lorry,
mildly tapping the Stryver arm, 「the young lady. The young lady
goes before all.」
「Then you mean to tell me, Mr. Lorry,」 said Stryver, squaring
his elbows, 「that it is your deliberate opinion that the young lady
at present in question is a mincing Fool?」
「Not exactly so. I mean to tell you, Mr. Stryver,」 said Mr. Lorry,
reddening, 「that I will hear no disrespectful word of that young
lady from any lips; and that if I knew any man—which I hope I do
not—whose taste was so coarse, and whose temper was so
overbearing, that he could not restrain himself from speaking
disrespectfully of that young lady at this desk, not even Tellson』s
should prevent my giving him a piece of my mind.」
The necessity of being angry in a suppressed tone had put Mr.
Stryver』s blood-vessels into a dangerous state when it was his turn
to be angry; Mr. Lorry』s veins, methodical as their courses could
usually be, were in no better state now it was his turn.
「That is what I mean to tell you, sir,」 said Mr. Lorry. 「Pray let
there be no mistake about it.」
Mr. Stryver sucked the end of a ruler for a little while, and then
stood hitting a tune out of his teeth with it, which probably gave
him the toothache. He broke the awkward silence by saying:
「This is something new to me. Mr. Lorry. You deliberately
advise me not to go up to Soho and offer myself—myself, Stryver
of the King』s Bench bar?」
「Do you ask me for my advice, Mr. Stryver?」
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「Yes, I do.」
「Very good. Then I give it, and you have repeated it correctly.」
「And all I can say of it is,」 laughed Stryver with a vexed laugh,
「that this—ha, ha!—beats everything past, present, and to come.」
「Now understand me,」 pursued Mr. Lorry. 「As a man of
business, I am not justified in saying anything about this matter,
for, as a man of business, I know nothing of it. But, as an old
fellow, who has carried Miss Manette in his arms, who is the
trusted friend of Miss Manette and of her father too, and who has a
great affection for them both, I have spoken. The confidence is not
of my seeking, recollect. Now, you think I may not be right?」
「Not I!」 said Stryver, whistling. 「I can』t undertake to find third
parties in common sense; I can only find it for myself. I suppose
sense in certain quarters; you suppose mincing bread-and-butter
nonsense. It』s new to me, but you are right, I daresay.」
「What I suppose, Mr. Stryver, I claim to characterise for myself.
And understand me, sir,」 said Mr. Lorry, quickly flushing again, 「I
will not—not even at Tellson』s—have it characterised for me by
any gentleman breathing.
「There! I beg your pardon!」 said Stryver.
「Granted. Thank you. Well, Mr. Stryver, I was about to say:—it
might be painful too you to find yourself mistaken, it might be
painful to Doctor Manette to have the task of being explicit with
you, it might be very painful to Miss Manette to have the task of
being explicit with you. You know the terms upon which I have
the honour and happiness to stand with the family. If you please,
committing you in no way, representing you in no way, I will
undertake to correct my advice by the exercise of a little new
observation and judgment expressly brought to bear upon it. If
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you should then be dissatisfied with it, you can but test its
soundness for yourself; if on the other hand, you should be
satisfied with it, and it should be what it now is, it may spare all
sides what is best spared. What do you say?」
「How long would you keep me in town?」
「Oh! It is only a question of a few hours. I could go down to
Soho in the evening, and come to your chambers afterwards.」
「Then I say yes,」 said Stryver: 「I won』t go up there now, I am
not so hot upon it as that comes to: I say yes, and I shall expect you
to look in tonight. Good morning.」
Then Mr. Stryver turned and burst out of the Bank, causing
such a concussion of air on his passage through, that to stand up
against it bowing behind the two counters, required the utmost
remaining strength of the two ancient clerks. Those venerable and
feeble persons were always seen by the public in the act of bowing,
and were popularly believed, when they had bowed a customer
out, still to keep on bowing in the empty office until they bowed
another customer in.
The barrister was keen enough to divine that the banker would
not have gone so far in his expression of opinion on any less solid
ground than moral certainty. Unprepared as he was for the large
pill he had to swallow, he got it down. 「And now,」 said Mr.
Stryver, shaking his forensic forefinger at the Temple in general,
when it was down, 「my way out of this is to put you all in the
wrong.」
It was a bit of the art of an Old Bailey tactician, in which he
found great relief. 「You shall not put me in the wrong, young
lady,」 said Mr. Stryver; 「I』ll do that for you.」
Accordingly, when Mr. Lorry called that night as late as ten
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o』clock, Mr. Stryver, among a quantity of books and papers,
littered out for the purpose, seemed to have nothing less on his
mind than the subject of the morning. He even showed surprise
when he saw Mr. Lorry, and was altogether in an absent and
preoccupied state.
「Well!」 said that good-natured emissary, after a full half-hour of
bootless attempts to bring him round to the question. 「I have been
to Soho.」
「To Soho?」 repeated Mr. Stryver, coldly. 「Oh, to be sure! What
am I thinking of!」
「And I have no doubt,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「that I was right in the
conversation we had. My opinion is confirmed, and I reiterate my
advice.」
「I assure you,」 returned Mr. Stryver, in the friendliest way,
「that I am sorry for it on your account, and sorry for it on the poor
father』s account. I know this must always be a sore subject with
the family; let us say no more about it.」
「I don』t understand you,」 said Mr. Lorry.
「I daresay not,」 rejoined Stryver, nodding his head in a
smoothing and final way; 「no matter, no matter.」
「But it does matter,」 Mr. Lorry urged.
「No it doesn』t; I assure you it doesn』t. Having supposed that
there was sense where there is no sense, and a laudable ambition
where there is not a laudable ambition, I am well out of my
mistake, and no harm is done. Young women have committed
similar follies often before, and have repented them in poverty and
obscurity often before. In an unselfish aspect, I am sorry that the
thing is dropped, because it would have been a bad thing for me in
a worldly point of view; in a selfish aspect, I am glad that the thing
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has dropped, because it would have been a bad thing for me in a
worldly point of view—it is hardly necessary to say I could have
gained nothing by it. There is no harm at all done. I have not
proposed to the young lady, and, between ourselves, I am by no
means certain, on reflection, that I ever should have committed
myself to that extent. Mr. Lorry, you cannot control the mincing
vanities and giddinesses of empty-headed girls; you must not
expect to do it, or you will always be disappointed. Now, pray say
no more about it. I tell you, I regret it on account of others, but I
am satisfied on my own account. And I am really very much
obliged to you for allowing me to sound you, and for giving me
your advice; you know the young lady better than I do; you were
right, it never would have done.」
Mr. Lorry was so taken aback, that he looked quite stupidly at
Mr. Stryver shouldering him towards the door, with an
appearance of showering generosity, forbearance, and goodwill,
on his erring head. 「Make the best of it; my dear sir,」 said Stryver;
「say no more about it; thank you again for allowing me to sound
you; good night!」
Mr. Lorry was out in the night, before he knew where he was.
Mr. Stryver was lying back on his sofa, winking at his ceiling.
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Chapter XIX
THE FELLOW OF NO DELICACY
If Sydney Carton ever shone anywhere, he certainly never
shone in the house of Doctor Manette. He had been there
often, during a whole year, and had always been the same
moody and morose lounger there. When he cared to talk, he talked
well; but, the cloud of caring for nothing which overshadowed him
with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light
within him.
And yet he did care something for the streets that environed
that house, and for the senseless stones that made their
pavements. Many a night he vaguely and unhappily wandered
there, when wine had brought no transitory gladness to him; many
a dreary daybreak revealed his solitary figure lingering there, and
still lingering there when the first beams of the sun brought into
strong relief, removed beauties in architecture in spires of
churches and lofty buildings, as perhaps the quiet time brought
some sense of better things, else forgotten and unattainable, into
his mind. Of late, the neglected bed in the Temple Court had
known him more scantily than ever; and often when he had
thrown himself upon it no longer than a few minutes, he had got
up again, and haunted that neighbourhood.
On a day in August, when Mr. Stryver (after notifying to his
jackal that 「he had thought better of that marrying matter」) had
carried his delicacy into Devonshire, and when the sight and scent
of flowers in the City streets had some waifs of goodness in them
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for the worst, of health for the sickliest, and of youth for the oldest,
Sydney』s feet still trod those stones. From being irresolute and
purposeless, his feet became animated by an intention, and, in the
working out of that intention, they took him to the Doctor』s door.
He was shown upstairs, and found Lucie at her work, alone.
She had never been quite at her ease with him, and received him
with some little embarrassment as he seated himself near her
table. But, looking up at his face in the interchange of the first few
common-places, she observed a change in it.
「I fear you are not well, Mr. Carton!」
「No. But the life I lead, Miss Manette, is not conducive to
health. What is to be expected of, or by, such profligates?」
「Is it not—forgive me; I had begun the question on my lips—a
pity to live no better life?」
「God knows it is a shame!」
「Then why not change it?」
Looking gently at him again, she was surprised and saddened
to see that there were tears in his eyes. There were tears in his
voice too, as he answered:
「It is too late for that. I shall never be better than I am. I shall
sink lower and be worse.」
He leaned an elbow on her table, and covered his eyes with his
hand. The table trembled in the silence that followed.
She had never seen him softened, and was much distressed. He
knew her to be so, without looking at her, and said:
「Pray forgive me, Miss Manette. I break down before the
knowledge of what I want to say to you. Will you hear me?」
「If it will do you any good, Mr. Carton, if it would make you
happier, it would make me very glad!」
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「God bless you for your sweet compassion!」
He unshaded his face after a little while and spoke steadily.
「Don』t be afraid to hear me. Don』t shrink from anything I say. I
am like one who died young. All my life might have been.」
「No, Mr. Carton. I am sure that the best part of it might still be;
I am sure that you might be much, much worthier of yourself.」
「Say of you, Miss Manette, and although I know better—
although in the mystery of my own wretched heart I now better—I
shall never forget it!」
She was pale and trembling. He came to her relief with a fixed
despair of himself which made the inter view unlike any other that
could have been holden.
「If it had been possible, Miss Manette, that you could have
returned the love of the man you see before you—self-flung away,
wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse as you know him to be—
he would have been conscious this day and hour, in spite of his
happiness, that he would bring you to misery, bring you to sorrow
and repentance, blight you, disgrace you, pull you down with him.
I know very well that you can have no tenderness for me; I ask for
none; I am even thankful that it cannot be.」
「Without it, can I not save you, Mr. Carton? Can I not recall
you—forgive me again!—to a better course? Can I in no way repay
your confidence? I know this is a confidence,」 she modestly said,
after a little hesitation, and in earnest tears, 「I know you would
say this to no one else. Can I turn it to no good account for
yourself, Mr. Carton?」
He shook his head.
「To none. No, Miss Manette, to none. If you will hear me
through a very little more, all you can ever do for me is done. I
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wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. In
my degradation I have not been so degraded but that the sight of
you with your father, and of this home made such a home by you,
has stirred old shadows that I thought had died out of me. Since I
knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would
never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old
voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent for ever. I
have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew,
shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned
fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the
sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you
inspired it.」
「Will nothing of it remain? O Mr. Carton, think again! Try
again!」
「No, Miss Manette; all through it, I have known myself to be
quite undeserving. And yet I have had the weakness, and have still
the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery
you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire—a fire, however,
inseparable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting
nothing, doing no service, idly burning away.」
「Since it is my misfortune, Mr. Carton, to have made you more
unhappy than you were before you knew me—」
「Don』t say that, Miss Manette, for you would have reclaimed
me, if anything could. You will not be the cause of my becoming
worse.」
「Since the state of your mind that you describe, is, at all events,
attributable to some influence of mine—that is what I mean, if I
can make it plain—can I use no influence to serve you? Have I no
power for good, with you, at all?」
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「The utmost good that I am capable of now, Miss Manette, I
have come here to realise. Let me carry through the rest of my
misdirected life, the remembrance that I opened my heart to you,
last of all the world; and that there was something left in me at this
time which you could deplore and pity.」
「Which I entreated you to believe, again and again, most
fervently, with all my heart, was capable of better things, Mr.
Carton!」
「Entreat me to believe it no more, Miss Manette. I have proved
myself, and I know better. I distress you; I draw fast to an end. Will
you let me believe, when I recall this day, that the last confidence
of my life was reposed in your pure and innocent breast, and that
it lies there alone, and will be shared by no one?」
「If that will be a consolation to you, yes.」
「Not even by the dearest one ever to be known to you?」
「Mr. Carton,」 she answered, after an agitated pause, 「the secret
is yours, not mine; and I promise to respect it.」
「Thank you. And again God bless you.」
He put her hand to his lips, and moved towards the door.
「Be under no apprehension, Miss Manette, of my ever
resuming this conversation by so much as a passing word. I will
never refer to it again. If I were dead, that could not be surer than
it is henceforth. In the hour of my death, I shall hold sacred the
one good remembrance—and shall thank and bless you for it—
that my last avowal of myself was made to you, and that my name,
and faults, and miseries were gently carried in your heart. May it
otherwise be light and happy!」
He was so unlike what he had ever shown himself to be, and it
was so sad to think how much he had thrown away, and how much
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he every day kept down and perverted, that Lucie Manette wept
mournfully for him as he stood looking back at her.
「Be comforted!」 he said, 「I am not worth such feeling, Miss
Manette. An hour or two hence, and the low companions and low
habits that I scorn but yield to, will render me less worth such
tears as those, than any wretch who creeps along the streets. Be
comforted! But, within myself, I shall always be, towards you,
what I am now, though outwardly I shall be what you have
heretofore seen me. The last supplication but one I make to you,
is, that you will believe this of me.」
「I will, Mr. Carton.」
「My last supplication of all, is this; and with it, I will relieve you
of a visitor with whom I well know you have nothing in unison,
and between whom and you there is an impassable space. It is
useless to say it, I know, but it rises out of my soul. For you, and
for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that
better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice
in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to
you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent
and sincere in this one thing. The time will come, the time will not
be long in coming, when new ties will be formed about you—ties
that will bind you yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you
so adorn—the dearest ties that will ever grace and gladden you. O
Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father』s face looks
up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty spring up anew
at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would
give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!」
He said, 「Farewell!」 said a last 「God bless you!」 and left her.
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Chapter XX
THE HONEST TRADESMAN
T o the eyes of Mr. Jeremiah Cruncher, sitting on his stool in
Fleet Street with his grisly urchin beside him, a vast
number and variety of objects in movement were every
day presented. Who could sit upon anything in Fleet Street during
the busy hours of the day, and not be dazed and deafened by two
immense processions, one ever tending westward with the sun,
the other ever tending eastward from the sun, both ever tending to
the plains beyond the range of red and purple where the sun goes
down!
With his straw in his mouth, Mr. Cruncher sat watching the two
streams, like the heathen rustic who has for several centuries been
on duty watching one stream—saving that Jerry had no
expectation of their ever running dry. Nor would it have been an
expectation of a hopeful kind, since a small part of his income was
derived from the pilotage of timid women (mostly of a full habit
and past the middle term of life) from Tellson』s side of the tides to
the opposite shore. Brief as such companionship was in every
separate instance. Mr. Cruncher never failed to become so
interested in the lady as to express a strong desire to have the
honour of drinking her very good health. And it was from the gifts
bestowed upon him towards the execution of this benevolent
purpose, that he recruited his finances, as just now observed.
Time was, when a poet sat upon a stool in a public place, and
mused in the sight of men. Mr. Cruncher, sitting on a stool in a
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public place, but not being a poet, mused as little as possible, and
looked about him.
It fell out that he was thus engaged in a season when crowds
were few, and belated women few, and when his affairs in general
were so unprosperous as to awaken a strong suspicion in his
breast that Mrs. Cruncher must have been 「flopping」 in some
pointed manner, when an unusual concourse pouring down Fleet
Street westward, attracted his attention. Looking that way, Mr.
Cruncher made out that some kind of funeral was coming along,
and that there was popular objection to this funeral, which
engendered uproar.
「Young Jerry,」 said Mr. Cruncher, turning to his offspring, 「it』s
a buryin』.」
「Hooroar, father!」 cried Young Jerry.
The young man uttered this exultant sound with mysterious
significance. The elder gentleman took the cry so ill, that he
watched his opportunity, and smote the young gentleman on the
ear.
「What d』ye mean? What are you hooroaring at? What do you
want to conwey to your own father, you young Rip! This boy is a
getting too many for me!」 said Mr. Cruncher, surveying him. 「Him
and his hooroars! Don』t let me hear no more of you, or you shall
feel some more of me. D』ye hear?」
「I warn』t doing no harm,」 Young Jerry protested, rubbing his
cheek.
「Drop it then,」 said Mr. Cruncher; 「I won』t have none of your
no harms. Get a top of that there seat, and look at the crowd.」
His son obeyed, and the crowd approached; they were bawling
and hissing round a dingy hearse and dingy mourning coach, in
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which mourning coach there was only one mourner, dressed in the
dingy trappings that were considered essential to the dignity of
the position. The position appeared by no means to please him,
however, with an increasing rabble surrounding the coach,
deriding him, making grimaces at him, and incessantly groaning
and calling out: 「Yah! Spies! Tst! Yaha! Spies!」 with many
compliments too numerous and forcible to repeat.
Funerals had at all times a remarkable attraction for Mr.
Cruncher; he always pricked up his senses, and became excited,
when a funeral passed Tellson』s. Naturally, therefore, a funeral
with this uncommon attendance excited him greatly, and he asked
of the first man who ran against him:
「What is it, brother? What』s it about?」
「I don』t know,」 said the man. 「Spies! Yaha! Tst! Spies!」
He asked another man. 「Who is it?」
「I don』t know,」 returned the other man, clapping his hands to
his mouth, nevertheless, and vociferating in a surprising heat and
with the greatest ardour, 「Spies! Yaha! Tst, tst! Spi-ies!」
At length, a person better informed on the merits of the case,
tumbled against him, and from this person he learned that the
funeral was the funeral of one Roger Cly.
「Was He a spy?」 asked Mr. Cruncher.
「Old Bailey spy,」 returned his informant. 「Yaha! Tst! Yah! Old
Bailey Spi-i-ies!」
「Why, to be sure!」 exclaimed Jerry, recalling the Trial at which
he had assisted. 「I』ve seen him. Dead, is he?」
「Dead as mutton,」 returned the other, 「and can』t be too dead.
Have 』em out, there! Spies! Pull 』em out, there! Spies!」
The idea was so acceptable in the prevalent absence of any
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idea, that the crowd caught it up with eagerness, and loudly
repeating the suggestion to have 』em out, and to pull 』em out,
mobbed the two vehicles so closely that they came to a stop. On
the crowd』s opening the coach doors, the one mourner scuffled out
of himself and was in their hands for a moment; but he was so
alert, and made such good use of his time, that in another moment
he was scouring away up by a by-street, after shedding his cloak,
hat, long hatband, white pocket-handkerchief, and other
symbolical tears.
These, the people tore to pieces and scattered far and wide with
great enjoyment, while the tradesmen hurriedly shut up their
shops; for a crowd in those times stopped at nothing, and was a
monster much dreaded. They had already got to the length of
opening the hearse to take the coffin out, when some brighter
genius proposed instead, its being escorted to its destination
amidst general rejoicing. Practical suggestions being much
needed, this suggestion, too, was received with acclamation, and
the coach was immediately filled with eight inside and a dozen
out, while as many people got on the roof of the hearse as could by
any exercise of ingenuity stick upon it. Among the first of these
volunteers was Jerry Cruncher himself, who modestly concealed
his spiky head from the observation of Tellson』s, in the further
corner of the mourning coach.
The officiating undertakers made some protest against these
changes in the ceremonies; but, the river being alarmingly near,
and several voices remarking on the efficacy of cold immersion in
bringing refractory members of the profession to reason, the
protest was faint and brief. The remodelled procession started,
with a chimney-sweep driving the hearse—advised by the regular
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driver, who was perched beside him, under close inspection, for
the purpose—and with a pie-man, also attended by his cabinet
minister, driving the mourning coach. A bear-leader, a popular
street character of the time, was impressed as an additional
ornament, before the cavalcade had gone far down the Strand;
and his bear, who was black and very mangy, gave quite an
Undertaking air to that part of the procession in which he walked.
Thus, with beer-drinking, pipe-smoking, song-roaring, and
infinite caricaturing of woe, the disorderly procession went its
way, recruiting at every step, and all the shops shutting up before
it. Its destination was the old church of Saint Pancras, far off in
the fields. It got there in course of time; insisted on pouring into
the burial-ground; finally, accomplished the interment of the
deceased Roger Cly in its own way, and highly to its own
satisfaction.
The dead man disposed of, and the crowd being under the
necessity of providing some other entertainment for itself, another
brighter genius (or perhaps the same) conceived the humour of
impeaching casual passers-by, as Old Bailey spies, and wreaking
vengeance on them. Chase was given to some scores of inoffensive
persons who had never been near the Old Bailey in their lives, in
the realisation of this fancy, and they were roughly hustled and
maltreated. The transition to the sport of window-breaking, and
thence to the plundering of public-houses, was easy and natural.
At last, after several hours, when sundry summer-houses had been
pulled down, and some area-railings had been torn up, to arm the
more belligerent spirits, a rumour got about that the Guards were
coming. Before the rumour, the crowd gradually melted away, and
perhaps the Guards came, and perhaps they never came, and this
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was the usual progress of a mob.
Mr. Cruncher did not assist at the closing sports, but had
remained behind in the churchyard, to confer and condole with
the undertakers. The place had a soothing influence on him. He
procured a pipe from a neighbouring public-house, and smoked it,
looking in at the railings and maturely considering the spot.
「Jerry,」 said Mr. Cruncher, apostrophising himself his usual
way, 「you see that there Cly that day, and you see with your own
eyes that he was a young 』un and a straight made 』un.」
Having smoked his pipe out, and ruminated a little longer, he
turned himself about, that he might appear before the hour of
closing, on his station at Tellson』s. Whether his meditations on
morality had touched his liver, or whether his general health had
been previously at all amiss, or whether he desired to show a little
attention to an eminent man, is not so much to the purpose, as
that he made a short call upon his medical adviser—a
distinguished surgeon—on his way back.
Young Jerry relieved his father with dutiful interest, and
reported No job in his absence. The bank closed, the ancient
clerks came out, the usual watch was set, and Mr. Cruncher and
his son went home to tea.
「Now, I tell you where it is!」 said Mr. Cruncher to his wife, on
entering. 「If, as a honest tradesman, my wentures goes wrong
tonight, I shall make sure that you』ve been praying agin me, and I
shall work you for it just the same as if I seen you do it.」
The dejected Mrs. Cruncher shook her head.
「Why, you』re at it afore my face!」 said Mr. Cruncher, with signs
of angry apprehension.
「I am saying nothing.」
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「Well, then; don』t meditate nothing. You might as well flop as
meditate. You may as well go again me one way as another. Drop
it altogether.」
「Yes, Jerry.」
「Yes, Jerry,」 repeated Mr. Cruncher sitting down to tea. 「Ah! It
is yes, Jerry. That』s about it. You may say yes, Jerry.」
Mr. Cruncher had no particular meaning in these sulky
corroborations, but made use of them, as people not unfrequently
do, to express general ironical dissatisfaction.
「You and your yes, Jerry,」 said Mr. Cruncher, taking a bite out
of his bread-and-butter, and seeming to help it down with a large
invisible oyster out of his saucer. 「Ah! I think so. I believe you.」
「You were going out tonight?」 asked his decent wife, when he
took another bite.
「Yes, I am.」
「May I go with you, father?」 asked his son, briskly.
「No, you mayn』t. I』m a going—as your mother knows—a
fishing. That』s where I』m going to. Going a fishing.」
「Your fishing-rod gets rayther rusty; don』t it, father?」
「Never you mind.」
「Shall you bring any fish home, father?」
「If I don』t, you』ll have short commons, tomorrow,」 returned
that gentleman, shaking his head; 「that』s questions enough for
you; I ain』t a going out, till you』ve been long a-bed.」
He devoted himself during the remainder of the evening to
keeping a most vigilant watch on Mrs. Cruncher, and sullenly
holding her in conversation that she might be prevented from
meditating any petitions to his disadvantage. With this view, he
urged his son to hold her in conversation also, and led the
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unfortunate woman a hard life by dwelling on any causes of
complaint he could bring against her, rather than he would leave
her for a moment to her own reflections. The devoutest person
could have rendered no greater homage to the efficacy of an
honest prayer than he did in this distrust of his wife. It was as if a
professed unbeliever in ghosts should be frightened by a ghost
story.
「And mind you!」 said Mr. Cruncher. 「No games tomorrow! If I,
as a honest tradesman, succeed in providing a jinte of meat or two,
none of your not touching of it, and sticking to bread. If I, as a
honest tradesman, am able to provide a little beer, none of your
declaring on water. When you go to Rome, do as Rome does. Rome
will be a ugly customer to you, if you don』t. I』m your Rome, you
know.」
Then he began grumbling again:
「With you flying into the face of your own wittles and drink! I
don』t know how scarce you mayn』t make the wittles and drink
here, by your flopping tricks and your unfeeling conduct. Look at
your boy: he is your』n, ain』t he? He』s as thin as a lath. Do you call
yourself a mother, and not know that a mother』s first duty is to
blow her boy out?」
This touched young Jerry on a tender place; who adjured his
mother to perform her first duty, and whatever else she did or
neglected, above all things to lay especial stress on the discharge
of that maternal function so affectingly and delicately indicated by
his other parent.
Thus the evening wore away with the Cruncher family, until
Young Jerry was ordered to bed, and his mother, laid under
similar injunctions, obeyed them. Mr. Cruncher beguiled the
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earlier watches of the night with solitary pipes, and did not start
upon his excursion until one o』clock. Towards that small and
ghostly hour, he rose up from his chair, took a key out of his
pocket, opened a locked cupboard, and brought forth a sack, a
crowbar of convenient size, a rope and chain, and other fishing
tackle of that nature. Disposing these articles about him in skilful
manner, he bestowed a parting defiance on Mrs. Cruncher,
extinguished the light, and went out.
Young Jerry, who had only made a feint of undressing when he
went to bed, was not long after his father. Under cover of the
darkness he followed out of the room, followed down the stairs,
followed down the court, followed out into the streets. He was in
no uneasiness concerning his getting into the house again, for it
was full of lodgers, and the door stood ajar all night.
Impelled by a laudable ambition to study the art and mystery of
his father』s honest calling, Young Jerry, keeping as close to house
fronts, walls, and doorways, as his eyes were close to one another,
held his honoured parent in view. The honoured parent steering
northward, had not gone far, when he was joined by another
disciple of Izaak Walton, and the two trudged on together.
Within half an hour from the first starting, they were beyond
the winking lamps, and the more than winking watchman, and
were out upon a lonely road. Another fisherman was picked up
here—and that so silently, that if Young Jerry had been
superstitious, he might have supposed the second follower of the
gentle craft to have, all of a sudden, split himself in two.
The three went on, and Young Jerry went on, until the three
stopped under a bank overhanging the road. Upon the top of the
bank was a low brick wall, surmounted by an iron railing. In the
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shadow of bank and wall the three turned out of the road, and up a
blind lane, of which the wall—there, risen to some eight or ten feet
high—formed one side. Crouching down in a corner, peeping up
the lane, the next object that Young Jerry saw was the form of his
honoured parent, pretty well defined against a watery and clouded
moon, nimbly scaling an iron gate. He was soon over, and then the
second fisherman got over, and then the third. They all dropped
softly on the ground within the gate, and lay there a little—
listening perhaps. Then they moved away on their hands and
knees.
It was now Young Jerry』s turn to approach the gate: which he
did, holding his breath. Crouching down again in a corner there,
and looking in, he made out the three fishermen creeping through
some rank grass! and all the gravestones in the churchyard—it
was a large churchyard that they were in—looking on like ghosts
in white, while the church tower itself looked on like the ghost of a
monstrous giant. They did not creep far, before they stopped and
stood upright. And then they began to fish.
They fished with a spade, at first. Presently the honoured
parent appeared to be adjusting some instrument like a great
corkscrew. Whatever tools they worked with, they worked hard,
until the awful striking of the church clock so terrified Young
Jerry, that he made off, with his hair as stiff as his father』s.
But, his long-cherished desire to know more about these
matters, not only stopped him in his running away, but lured him
back again. They were still fishing perseveringly, when he peeped
in at the gate for the second time; but now they seemed to have got
a bite. There was a screwing and complaining sound down below,
and their bent figures were strained, as if by a weight. By slow
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degrees the weight broke away the earth upon it, and came to the
surface. Young Jerry very well knew what it would be; but, when
he saw it, and saw his honoured parent about to wrench it open,
he was so frightened, being new to the sight, that he made off
again, and never stopped until he had run a mile or more.
He would not have stopped then, for anything less necessary
than breath, it being a spectral sort of race that he ran, and one
highly desirable to get to the end of. He had a strong idea that the
coffin he had seen was running after him; and, pictured as
hopping on behind him, bolt upright, upon its narrow end, always
on the point of overtaking him and hopping on at his side—
perhaps taking his arm—it was a pursuer to shun. It was an
inconsistent and ubiquitous fiend too, for, while it was making the
whole night behind him dreadful, he darted out into the roadway
to avoid dark alleys, fearful of its coming hopping out of them like
a dropsical boy』s-Kite without tail and wings. It hid in doorways
too, rubbing its horrible shoulders against doors, and drawing
them up to its ears, as if it were laughing. It got into shadows on
the road, and lay cunningly on its back to trip him up. All this time
it was incessantly hopping on behind and gaining on him, so that
when the boy got to his own door he had reason for being half
dead. And even then it would not leave him, but followed him
upstairs with a bump on every stair, scrambled into bed with him,
and bumped down, dead and heavy, on his breast when he fell
asleep.
From his oppressed slumber, Young Jerry in his closet was
awakened after daybreak and before sunrise by the presence of
his father in the family room. Something had gone wrong with
him; at least so Young Jerry inferred, from the circumstance of his
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holding Mrs. Cruncher by the ears, and knocking the back of her
head against the headboard of the bed.
「I told you I would,」 said Mr. Cruncher, 「and I did.」
「Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!」 his wife implored.
「You oppose yourself to the profit of the business,」 said Jerry,
「and me and my partners suffer. You was to honour and obey;
why the devil don』t you?」
「I try to be a good wife, Jerry,」 the poor woman protested, with
tears.
「Is it being a good wife to oppose your husband』s business? Is it
honouring your husband to dishonour his business? Is it obeying
your husband to disobey him on the wital subject of his business?」
「You hadn』t taken to the dreadful business then, Jerry.」
「It』s enough for you,」 retorted Mr. Cruncher, 「to be the wife of
a honest tradesman, and not occupy your female mind with
calculations when he took to his trade or when he didn』t. A
honouring and obeying wife would let his trade alone altogether.
Call yourself a religious woman? If you』re a religious woman, give
me a irreligious one! You have no more nat』ral sense of duty than
the bed of this here Thames river has of a pile, and similarly it
must be knocked into you.」
The altercation was conducted in a low tone of voice, and
terminated in the honest tradesman』s kicking off his clay-soiled
boots, and lying down at his length on the floor. After taking a
timid peep at him lying on his back, with his rusty hands under his
head for a pillow, his son lay down too, and fell asleep again.
There was no fish for breakfast, and not much of anything else.
Mr. Cruncher was out of spirits, and out of temper, and kept an
iron pot-lid by him as a projectile for the correction of Mrs.
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Cruncher, in case he should observe any symptoms of her saying
Grace. He was brushed and washed at the usual hour, and set off
with his son to pursue his ostensible calling.
Young Jerry, walking with the stool under his arm at his
father』s side along sunny and crowded Fleet Street, was a very
different Young Jerry from him of the previous night, running
home through the darkness and solitude from his grim pursuer.
His cunning was fresh with the day, and his qualms were gone
with the night—in which particulars it is not improbable that he
had compeers in Fleet Street and the City of London, that fine
morning.
「Father,」 said Young Jerry, as they walked along: taking care to
keep at arm』s length and to have the stool well between them:
「what』s a Resurrection-Man?」
Mr. Cruncher came to a stop on the pavement before he
answered, 「How should I know?」
「I thought you knowed everything, father,」 said the artless boy.
「Hem! Well,」 returned Mr. Cruncher, going on again, and
lifting off his hat to give his spikes free play. 「he』s a tradesman.」
「What』s his goods, father?」 asked the brisk Young Jerry.
「His goods,」 said Mr. Cruncher, after turning it over in his
mind, 「is a branch of Scientific goods.」
「Persons』 bodies, ain』t it, father?」 asked the lively boy.
「I believe it is something of that sort,」 said Mr. Cruncher.
「Oh, father, I should so like to be a Resurrection-Man when I』m
quite growed up!」
Mr. Cruncher was soothed, but shook his head in a dubious and
moral way. 「It depends on how you dewelop your talents. Be
careful to dewelop your talents, and never to say no more than you
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can help to nobody, and there』s no telling at the present time what
you may not come to be fit for.」 As Young Jerry, thus encouraged,
went on a few yards in advance, to plant the stool in the shadow of
the Bar, Mr. Cruncher added to himself: 「Jerry, you honest
tradesman, there』s hope wot that boy will yet be a blessing to you,
and a recompense to you for his mother.」
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Chapter XXI
KNITTING
T here had been earlier drinking than usual in the wine-
shop of Monsieur Defarge. As early as six o』clock in the
morning, sallow faces peeping through its barred windows
had descried other faces within, bending over measures of wine.
Monsieur Defarge sold a very thin wine at the best of times, but it
would seem to have been an unusually thin wine that he sold at
this time. A sour wine, moreover, or a souring, for its influence on
the mood of those who drank it was to make them gloomy. No
vivacious Bacchanalian flame leaped out of the pressed grape of
Monsieur Defarge: but, a smouldering fire that burnt in the dark,
lay hidden in the dregs of it.
This had been the third morning in succession, on which there
had been early drinking at the wine-shop of Monsieur Defarge. It
had been begun on Monday, and here was Wednesday come.
There had been more of early brooding than drinking; for, many
men had listened and whispered and slunk about there from the
time of the opening of the door, who could not have laid a piece of
money on the counter to save their souls. These were to the full as
interested in the place, however, as if they could have commanded
whole barrels of wine; and they glided from seat to seat, and from
corner to corner, swallowing talk in lieu of drink, with greedy
looks.
Notwithstanding an unusual flow of company, the master of the
wine-shop was not visible. He was not missed; for, nobody who
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crossed the threshold looked for him, nobody asked for him,
nobody wondered to see only Madame Defarge in her seat,
presiding over the distribution of wine, with a bowl of battered
small coins before her, as much defaced and beaten out of their
original impress as the small coinage of humanity from whose
ragged pockets they had come.
A suspended interest and a prevalent absence of mind, were
perhaps observed by the spies who looked in at the wine-shop, as
they looked in at every place, high and low, from the king』s palace
to the criminal』s gaol. Games at cards languished, players at
dominoes musingly built towers with them, drinkers drew figures
on the table with spilt drops of wine, Madame Defarge herself
picked out the pattern on her sleeve with her toothpick, and saw
and heard something invisible and inaudible a long way off.
Thus, Saint Antoine in this vinous feature of his, until midday.
It was high noontide, when two dusty men passed through his
streets and under his swinging lamps: of whom, one was Monsieur
Defarge: the other a mender of roads in a blue cap. All adust and
athirst, the two entered the wine-shop. Their arrival had lighted a
kind of fire in the breast of Saint Antoine, fast spreading as they
came along, which stirred and flickered in flames of faces at most
doors and windows. Yet, no one had followed them, and no man
spoke when they entered the wine-shop, though the eyes of every
man there were turned upon them.
「Good day, gentlemen!」 said Monsieur Defarge.
It may have been a signal for loosening the general tongue. It
elicited an answering chorus of 「Good day!」
「It is bad weather, gentlemen,」 said Defarge, shaking his head.
Upon which, every man looked at his neighbour, and then all
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cast down their eyes and sat silent. Except one man, who got up
and went out.
「My wife,」 said Defarge aloud, addressing Madame Defarge: 「I
have travelled certain leagues with this good mender of roads,
called Jacques. I met him—by accident—a day and a half』s journey
out of Paris. He is a good child, this mender of roads, called
Jacques. Give him to drink, my wife!」
A second man got up and went out. Madame Defarge set wine
before the mender of roads called Jacques, who doffed his blue
cap to the company, and drank. In the breast of his blouse he
carried some coarse dark bread; he ate of this between whiles, and
sat munching and drinking near Madame Defarge』s counter. A
third man got up and went out.
Defarge refreshed himself with a draught of wine—but, he took
less than was given to the stranger, as being himself a man to
whom it was no rarity—and stood waiting until the countryman
had made his breakfast. He looked at no one present, and no one
now looked at him; not even Madame Defarge, who had taken up
her knitting, and was at work.
「Have you finished your repast, friend?」 he asked, in due
season.
「Yes, thank you.」
「Come, then! You shall see the apartment that I told you you
could occupy. It will suit you to a marvel.」
Out of the wine-shop into the street, out of the street into a
courtyard, out of the courtyard up a steep staircase, out of the
staircase into a garret—formerly the garret where a white-haired
man sat on a low bench, stooping forward and very busy, making
shoes.
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No white-haired man was there now; but, the three men were
there who had gone out of the wine-shop singly. And between
them and the white-haired man afar off, was the one small link,
that they had once looked in at him through the chinks in the wall.
Defarge closed the door carefully, and spoke in a subdued
voice:
「Jacques One, Jacques Two, Jacques Three! This is the witness
encountered by appointment, by me, Jacques Four. He will tell
you all. Speak, Jacques Five!」
The mender of roads, blue cap in hand, wiped his swarthy
forehead with it, and said, 「Where shall I commence, monsieur?」
「Commence,」 was Monsieur Defarge』s not unreasonable reply,
「at the commencement.」
「I saw him then, messieurs,」 began the mender of roads, 「a
year ago this running summer, underneath the carriage of the
Marquis, hanging by the chain. Be hold the manner of it. I leaving
my work on the road, the sun going to bed, the carriage of the
Marquis slowly ascending the hill, he hanged by the chain—like
this.」
Again the mender of roads went through the whole
performance; in which he ought to have been perfect by that time,
seeing that it had been the infallible resource and indispensable
entertainment of his village during a whole year.
Jacques One struck in, and asked if he had ever seen the man
before?
「Never,」 answered the mender of roads, recovering his
perpendicular.
Jacques Three demanded how he afterwards recognised him
then?
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「By his tall figure,」 said the mender of roads, softly, and with
his finger at his nose. 「When Monsieur the Marquis demands that
evening, 『Say, what is he like?』 I make response, 『Tall as a
spectre.』」
「You should have said, short as a dwarf,」 returned Jacques
Two.
「But what did I know? The deed was not then accomplished,
neither did he confide in me. Observe! Under those circumstances
even, I do not offer my testimony. Monsieur the Marquis indicates
me with his finger, standing near our little fountain, and says, 『To
me! Bring that rascal!』 My faith, messieurs, I offer nothing.」
「He is right there, Jacques,」 murmured Defarge, to him who
had interrupted. 「Go on!」
「Good!」 said the mender of roads with an air of mystery. 「The
tall man is lost, and he is sought—how many months? Nine, ten,
eleven?」
「No matter, the number,」 said Defarge. 「He is well hidden, but
at last he is unluckily found. Go on!」
「I am again at work upon the hillside, and the sun is again
about to go to bed. I am collecting my tools to descend to my
cottage down in the village below, where it is already dark, when I
raise my eyes, and see coming over the hill six soldiers. In the
midst of them is a tall man with his arms bound—tied to his
sides—like this!」
With the aid of his indispensable cap, he represented a man
with his elbows bound fast at his hips, with cords that were
knotted behind him.
「I stand aside, messieurs, by my heap of stones, to see the
soldiers and their prisoner pass (for it is a solitary road, that,
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where any spectacle is well worth looking at), and at first, as they
approach, I see no more than that they are six soldiers with a tall
man bound, and that they are almost black to my sight—except on
the side of the sun going to bed, where they have a red edge,
messieurs. Also, I see that their long shadows are on the hollow
ridge on the opposite side of the road, and are on the hill above it,
and are like the shadows of giants. Also, I see that they are covered
with dust, and that the dust moves with them as they come, tramp,
tramp! But when they advance quite near to me, I recognise the
tall man, and he recognises me. Ah, but he would be well content
to precipitate himself over the hillside once again, as on the
evening when he and I first encountered, close to the same spot!」
He described it as if he were there, and it was evident that he
saw it vividly; perhaps he had not seen much in his life.
「I do not show the soldiers that I recognise the tall man; he
does not show the soldiers that he recognises me; we do it, and we
know it, with our eyes. 『Come on!』 says the chief of that company,
pointing to the village, 『bring him fast to his tomb!』 and they bring
him faster. I follow. His arms are swelled because of being bound
so tight, his wooden shoes are large and clumsy, and he is lame.
Because he is lame, and consequently slow, they drive him with
their guns—like this!」
He imitated the action of a man』s being impelled forward by the
butt-ends of muskets.
「As they descend the hill like madmen running a race, he falls.
They laugh and pick him up again. His face is bleeding and
covered with dust, but he cannot touch it; thereupon they laugh
again. They bring him into the village; all the village runs to look;
they take him past the mill, and up to the prison; all the village
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sees the prison gate open in the darkness of the night—and
swallow him—like this!」
He opened his mouth wide as he could, and shut it with a
sounding snap of his teeth. Observant of his unwillingness to mar
the effect by opening it again. Defarge said, 「Go on, Jacques.」
「All the village,」 pursued the mender of roads, on tiptoe and in
a low voice, 「withdraws; all the village whispers by the fountain;
all the village sleeps; all the village dreams of that unhappy one,
within the locks and bars of the prison on the crag, and never to
come out of it, except to perish. In the morning, with my tools
upon my shoulder, eating my morsel of black bread as I go, I make
a circuit by the prison, on my way to my work. There I see him,
high up, behind the bars of a lofty iron cage, bloody and dusty as
last night, looking through. He has no hand free, to wave to me; I
dare not call to him; he regards me like a dead man.」
Defarge and the three glanced darkly at one another. The looks
of all of them were dark, repressed, and revengeful, as they
listened to the countryman』s story; the manner of all of them,
while it was secret, was authoritative too. They had the air of a
rough tribunal; Jacques One and Two sitting on the old pallet-bed,
each with his chin resting on his hand, and his eyes intent on the
road-mender; Jacques Three, equally intent, on one knee behind
them, with his agitated hand always gliding over the network of
fine nerves about his mouth and nose; Defarge standing between
them and the narrator, whom he had stationed in the light of the
window, by turns looking from him to them, and from them to
him.
「Go on, Jacques,」 said Defarge.
「He remains up there in his iron cage some days. The village
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looks at him by stealth, for it is afraid. But always looks up, from a
distance, at the prison on the crag; and in the evening, when the
work of the day is achieved and it assembles to gossip at the
fountain, all faces are turned towards the prison. Formerly, they
were turned towards the posting-house; now, they turned towards
the prison. They whisper at the fountain, that although
condemned to death he will not be executed; they say that
petitions have been presented in Paris, showing that he was
enraged and made mad by the death of his child; they say that a
petition has been presented to the King himself. What do I know?
It is possible. Perhaps yes, perhaps no.」
「Listen then, Jacques,」 Number One of that name sternly
interposed. 「Know that a petition was presented to the King and
Queen. All here, yourself excepted, saw the King take it, in his
carriage in the street, sitting beside the Queen. It is Defarge whom
you see here, who, at the hazard of his life, darted out before the
horses, with the petition in his hand.」
「And once again listen, Jacques!」 said the kneeling Number
Three: his fingers ever wandering over and over those fine nerves,
with a strikingly greedy air, as if he hungered for something—that
was neither food nor drink; 「the guard, horse and foot,
surrounded the petitioner, and struck him blows. You hear?」
「I hear, messieurs.」
「Go on then,」 said Defarge.
「Again; on the other hand, they whisper at the fountain,」
resumed the countryman, 「that he is brought down into our
country to be executed on the spot, and that he will very certainly
be executed. They even whisper that because he has slain
Monseigneur, and because Monseigneur was the father of his
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tenants—serfs—what you will—he will be executed as a parricide.
One old man says at the fountain, that his right hand, armed with
the knife, will be burnt off before his face; that, into wounds which
will be made in his arms, his breast, and his legs, there will be
poured boiling oil, melted lead, hot resin, wax, and sulphur;
finally, that he will be torn limb from limb by four strong horses.
That old man says, all this was actually done to a prisoner who
made an attempt on the life of the late King, Louis Fifteen. But
how do I know if he lies? I am not a scholar.」
「Listen once again then, Jacques!」 said the man with the
restless hand and the craving air. 「The name of that prisoner was
Damiens, and it was all done in open day, in the open streets of
this city of Paris; and nothing was more noticed in the vast
concourse that saw it done, than the crowd of ladies of quality and
fashion, who were full of eager attention to the last—to the last.
Jacques, prolonged until nightfall, when he had lost two legs and
an arm, and still breathed! And it was done—why, how old are
you?」
「Thirty-five,」 said the mender of roads, who looked sixty.
「It was done when you were more than ten years old; you might
have seen it.」
「Enough!」 said Defarge, with grim impatience. 「Long live the
Devil! Go on.」
「Well! Some whisper this, some whisper that; they speak of
nothing else; even the fountain appears to fall to that tune. At
length, on Sunday night when all the village is asleep, come
soldiers, winding down from the prison, and their guns ring on the
stones of the little street. Workmen dig, workmen hammer,
soldiers laugh and sing; in the morning, by the fountain, there is
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raised a gallows forty feet high, poisoning the water.」
The mender of roads looked through rather than at the low
ceiling, and pointed as if he saw the gallows somewhere in the sky.
「All work is stopped, all assemble there, nobody leads the cows
out, the cows are there with the rest. At midday, the roll of drums.
Soldiers have marched into the prison in the night, and he is in the
midst of many soldiers. He is bound as before, and in his mouth
there is a gag—tied so, with a tight string, making him look almost
as if he laughed.」 He suggested it, by creasing his face with his two
thumbs, from the corners of his mouth to his ears. 「On the top of
the gallows is fixed the knife, blade upwards, with its point in the
air. He is hanged there forty feet high—and is left hanging,
poisoning the water.」
They looked at one another, as he used his blue cap to wipe his
face, on which the perspiration had started afresh while he
recalled the spectacle.
「It is frightful, messieurs. How can the women and the children
draw water! Who can gossip of an evening, under that shadow!
Under it, have I said? When I left the village, Monday evening as
the sun was going to bed, and looked back from the hill, the
shadow struck across the church, across the mill, across the
prison—seemed to strike across the earth, messieurs, to where the
sky rests upon it!」
The hungry man gnawed one of his fingers as he looked at the
other three, and his finger quivered with the craving that was on
him.
「That』s all, messieurs. I left at sunset (as I had been warned to
do), and I walked on, that night and half next day, until I met (as I
was warned I should) this comrade. With him, I came on, now
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riding and now walking, through the rest of yesterday and through
last night. And here you see me!」
After a gloomy silence, the first Jacques said, 「Good! You have
acted and recounted faithfully. Will you wait for us a little, outside
the door?」
「Very willingly,」 said the mender of roads, whom Defarge
escorted to the top of the stairs, and, leaving seated there,
returned.
The three had risen, and their heads were together when he
came back to the garret.
「How say you, Jacques?」 demanded Number One. 「To be
registered?」
「To be registered, as doomed to destruction,」 returned Defarge.
「Magnificent!」 croaked the man with craving, 「The chateau,
and all the race?」 inquired the first.
「The chateau and all the race,」 returned Defarge.
「Extermination.」
The hungry man repeated, in a rapturous croak, 「Magnificent!」
and began gnawing another finger.
「Are you sure,」 asked Jacques Two, of Defarge, 「that no
embarrassment can rise from our manner of keeping the register?
Without doubt it is safe, for no one beyond ourselves can decipher
it; but shall we always be able to decipher it—or, I ought to say,
will she?」
「Jacques,」 returned Defarge, drawing himself up, 「if madame
my wife undertook to keep the register in her memory alone, she
would not lose a word of it—not a syllable of it. Knitted, in her own
stitches and her own symbols, it will always be as plain to her as
the sun. Confide in Madame Defarge. It would be easier for the
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weakest poltroon that lives, to erase himself from existence, than
to erase one letter of his name or crimes from the knitted register
of Madame Defarge.」
There was a murmur of confidence and approval, and then the
man who hungered, asked: 「Is this rustic to be sent back soon? I
hope so. He is very simple; is he not a little dangerous?」
「He knows nothing,」 said Defarge; 「at least nothing more than
would easily elevate himself to a gallows of the same height. I
charge myself with him; let him remain with me; I will take care of
him, and set him on his road. He wishes to see the fine world—the
King, the Queen, and Court; let him see them on Sunday.」
「What?」 exclaimed the hungry man, staring. 「Is it a good sign,
that he wishes to see Royalty and Nobility?」
「Jacques,」 said Defarge; 「judiciously show a cat milk, if you
wish her to thirst for it. Judiciously show a dog his natural prey, if
you wish him to bring it down one day.」
Nothing more was said, and the mender of roads, being found
already dozing on the topmost stair, was advised to lay himself
down on the pallet-bed and take some rest. He needed no
persuasion, and was soon asleep.
Worse quarters than Defarge』s wine-shop, could easily have
been found in Paris for a provincial slave of that degree. Saving for
a mysterious dread of madame by which he was constantly
haunted, his life was very new and agreeable. But, madame sat all
day at her counter, so expressly unconscious of him, and so
particularly determined not to perceive that his being there had
any connexion with anything below the surface, that he shook in
his wooden shoes whenever his eye lighted on her. For, he
contended with himself that it was impossible to foresee what that
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lady might pretend next; and he felt assured that if she should
take into her brightly ornamented head to pretend that she had
seen him do a murder and afterwards flay the victim, she would
infallibly go through with it until the play was played out.
Therefore, when Sunday came, the mender of roads was not
enchanted (though he said he was) to find that madame was to
accompany monsieur and himself to Versailles. It was additionally
disconcerting to have madame knitting all the way there, in a
public conveyance; it was additionally disconcerting yet, to have
madame in the crowd in the afternoon, still with her knitting in
her hands as the crowd waited to see the carriage of the King and
Queen.
「You work hard, madame,」 said a man near her.
「Yes,」 answered Madame Defarge; 「I have a good deal to do.」
「What do you make, madame?」
「Many things.」
「For instance—」
「For instance,」 returned Madame Defarge, composedly,
「shrouds.」
The man moved a little further away, as soon as he could, and
the mender of roads fanned himself with his blue cap: feeling it
mightily close and oppressive. If he needed a King and Queen to
restore him, he was fortunate in having his remedy at hand; for,
soon the large-faced King and the fair-faced Queen came in their
golden coach, attended by the shining Bull』s Eye of their Court, a
glittering multitude of laughing ladies and fine lords; and in jewels
and silks and powder and splendour and elegantly spurning
figures and handsomely disdainful faces of both sexes, the mender
of roads bathed himself, so much to his temporary intoxicating,
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that he cried Long live the King, Long live the Queen, Long live
everybody and everything! as if he had never heard of ubiquitous
Jacques in his time. Then, there were gardens, courtyards,
terraces, fountains, green banks, more King and Queen, more
Bull』s Eye, more lords and ladies, more Long live they all! until he
absolutely wept with sentiment. During the whole of this scene,
which lasted some three hours, he had plenty of shouting and
weeping and sentimental company, and throughout Defarge held
him by the collar, as if to restrain him from flying at the objects of
his brief devotion and tearing them to pieces.
「Bravo!」 said Defarge, clapping him on the back when it was
over, like a patron; 「you are a good boy!」
The mender of roads was now coming to himself, and was
mistrustful of having made a mistake in his late demonstrations;
but no.
「You are the fellow we want,」 said Defarge, in his ear; 「you
make these fools believe that it will last for ever. Then, they are
the more insolent, and it is the nearer ended.」
「Hey!」 cried the mender of roads, reflectively; 「that』s true.」
「These fools know nothing. While they despise your breath, and
would stop it for ever and ever, in you or in a hundred like you
rather than in one of their own horses or dogs, they only know
what your breath tells them. Let it deceive them then, a little
longer; it cannot deceive them too much.」
Madame Defarge looked superciliously at the client, and
nodded in confirmation.
「As to you,」 said she, 「you would shout and shed tears for
anything, if it made a show and a noise. Say! Would you not?」
「Truly, madame, I think so. For the moment.」
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「If you were shown a great heap of dolls, and were set upon
them to pluck them to pieces and despoil them for your own
advantage, you would pick out the richest and gayest. Say! Would
you not?」
「Truly yes, Madame.」
「Yes. And if you were shown a flock of birds, unable to fly, and
were set upon them to strip them of their feathers for your own
advantage, you would set upon the birds of the finest feather:
would you not?」
「It is true, madame.」
「You have seen both dolls and birds today,」 said Madame
Defarge, with a wave of her hand towards the place where they
had last been apparent; 「now go home!」
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Chapter XXII
STILL KNITTING
Madame Defarge and monsieur her husband returned
amicably to the bosom of Saint Antoine, while a speck
in a blue cap toiled through the darkness, and through
the dust, and down the weary miles of avenue by the wayside,
slowly tending towards that point of the compass where the
chateau of Monsieur the Marquis, now in his grave, listened to the
whispering trees. Such ample leisure had the stone faces, now, for
listening to the trees and to the fountain, that the few village
scarecrows who, in their quest for herbs to eat and fragments of
dead stick to burn, strayed within sight of the great stone
courtyard and terrace staircase, had it borne in upon their starved
fancy that the expression of the faces was altered. A rumour just
lived in the village—had a faint and bare existence there, as its
people had—that when the knife struck home, the faces changed,
from faces of pride to faces of anger and pain; also, that when that
dangling figure was hauled up forty feet above the fountain, they
changed again, and bore a cruel look of being avenged, which they
would henceforth bear for ever. In the stone face over the great
window of the bed-chamber where the murder was done, two fine
dints were pointed out in the sculptured nose, which everybody
recognised, and which nobody had seen of old; and on the scarce
occasions when two or three ragged peasants emerged from the
crowd to take a hurried peep at Monseigneur the Marquis
petrified, a skinny finger would not have pointed to it for a minute,
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before they all started away among the moss and leaves, like the
more fortunate hares who could find a living there.
Chateau and hut, stone face and dangling figure, the red stain
on the stone floor, and the pure water in the village well—
thousands of acres of land—a whole province of France—all
France itself—lay under the night sky, concentrated into a faint
hairbreadth line. So does a whole world, with all its greatnesses
and littlenesses, lie in a twinkling star. And as mere human
knowledge can split a ray of light and analyse the manner of its
composition, so, sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble
shining of this earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and
virtue, of every responsible creature on it.
The Defarges, husband and wife, came lumbering under the
starlight, in their public vehicle, to that gate of Paris whereunto
their journey naturally tended. There was the usual stoppage at
the barrier guardhouse, and the usual lanterns came glancing
forth for the usual examination and inquiry. Monsieur Defarge
alighted; knowing one or two of the soldiery there, and one of the
police. The latter he was intimate with, and affectionately
embraced.
When Saint Antoine had again enfolded the Defarges in his
dusky wings, and they, having finally alighted near the Saint』s
boundaries, were picking their way on foot through the black mud
and offal of his streets, Madame Defarge spoke to her husband:
「Say then, my friend; what did Jacques of the police tell thee?」
「Very little tonight, but all he knows. There is another spy
commissioned for our quarter. There may be many more, for all
that he can say, but he knows of one.」
「Eh well!」 said Madame Defarge, raising her eye brows with a
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cool business air. 「It is necessary to register him. How do they call
that man?」
「He is English.」
「So much the better. His name?」
「Barsad,」 said Defarge, making it French by pronunciation.
But he had been so careful to get it accurately, that he then spelt it
with perfect correctness.
「Barsad,」 repeated madame. 「Good. Christian name?」
「John.」
「John Barsad,」 repeated madame, after murmuring it once to
herself. 「Good. His appearance; is it known?」
「Age, about forty years; height, about five feet nine; black hair;
complexion dark; generally, rather handsome visage; eyes dark;
face thin, long, and sallow; nose aquiline, but not straight, having a
peculiar inclination towards the left cheek; expression, therefore,
sinister.」
「Eh, my faith. It is a portrait!」 said madame, laughing. 「He
shall be registered tomorrow.」
They turned into the wine-shop, which was closed (for it was
midnight), and where Madame Defarge immediately took her post
at her desk, counting the small moneys that had been taken
during her absence, examined the stock, went through the entries
in the book, made other entries of her own, checked the serving-
man in every possible way, and finally dismissed him to bed. Then
she turned out the contents of the bowl of money for the second
time, and began knotting them up in her handkerchief, in a chain
of separate knots, for safe keeping through the night. All this
while, Defarge, with his pipe in his mouth, walked up and down,
complacently admiring, but never interfering; in which condition,
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indeed, as to the business and his domestic affairs, he walked up
and down through life.
The night was hot, and the shop, close shut and surrounded by
so foul a neighbourhood, was ill-smelling. Monsieur Defarge』s
olfactory sense was by no means delicate, but the stock of wine
smelt stronger than it ever tasted, and so did the stock of rum and
brandy and aniseed. He whiffed the compound of scents away, as
he put down his smoked-out pipe.
「You are fatigued,」 said madame, raising her glance as she
knotted the money. 「There are only the usual odours.」
「I am a little tired,」 her husband acknowledged.
「You are a little depressed too,」 said madame, whose quick
eyes had never been so intent on the accounts, but they had had a
ray or two for him. 「Oh, the men, the men!」
「But my dear!」 began Defarge.
「But my dear!」 repeated madame, nodding firmly; 「but my
dear! You are faint of heart tonight, my dear!」
「Well, then,」 said Defarge, as if a thought were wrung out of his
breast, 「it is a long time.」
「It is a long time,」 repeated his wife; 「and when is it not a long
time? Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the
rule.」
「It does not take a long time to strike a man with lightning,」
said Defarge.
「How long,」 demanded madame, composedly, 「does it take to
make and store the lightning? Tell me.」
Defarge raised his head thoughtfully, as if there were
something in that too.
「It does not take a long time,」 said madame. 「for an earthquake
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to swallow a town. Eh well! Tell me how long it takes to prepare
the earthquake?」
「A long time, I suppose,」 said Defarge.
「But when it is ready, it takes place, and grinds to pieces
everything before it. In the meantime, it is always preparing,
though it is not seen or heard. That is your consolation. Keep it.」
She tied a knot with flashing eyes, as if it throttled a foe.
「I tell thee,」 said madame, extending her right hand, for
emphasis, 「that although it is a long time on the road, it is on the
road and coming. I tell thee it never retreats, and never stops. I tell
thee it is always advancing. Look around and consider the lives of
all the world that we know, consider the rage and discontent to
which the Jacquerie addresses itself with more and more of
certainty every hour. Can such things last? Bah! I mock you.」
「My brave wife,」 returned Defarge, standing before her with
his head a little bent, and his hands clasped at his back, like a
docile and attentive pupil before his catechist, 「I do not question
all this. But it has lasted a long time, and it is possible—you know
well, my wife, it is possible—that it may not come, during our
lives.」
「Eh well! How then?」 demanded madame, tying another knot,
as if there were another enemy strangled.
「Well!」 said Defarge, with a half complaining and half
apologetic shrug. 「We shall not see the triumph.」
「We shall have helped it,」 returned madame, with her extended
hand in strong action. 「Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I
believe with all my soul, that we shall see the triumph. But even if
not, even if I knew certainly not, show me the neck of an aristocrat
and tyrant, and still I would—」 Then madame, with her teeth set,
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tied a very terrible knot indeed.
「Hold!」 cried Defarge, reddening a little as if he felt charged
with cowardice; 「I too, my dear, will stop at nothing.」
「Yes! But it is your weakness that you sometimes need to see
your victim and your opportunity, to sustain you. Sustain yourself
without that. When the time comes, let loose a tiger and a devil;
but wait for the time with the tiger and the devil chained—not
shown—yet always ready.」
Madame enforced the conclusion of this piece of advice by
striking her little counter with her chain of money as if she
knocked its brains out, and then gathering the heavy handkerchief
under her arm in a serene manner, and observing that it was time
to go to bed.
Next noontide saw the admirable woman in her usual place in
the wine-shop knitting away assiduously. A rose lay beside her,
and if she now and then glanced at the flower, it was with no
infraction of her usual preoccupied air. There were a few
customers, drinking or not drinking, standing or seated, sprinkled
about. The day was very hot, and heaps of flies, who were
extending their inquisitive and adventurous perquisitions into all
the glutinous little glasses near madame, fell dead at the bottom.
Their decease made no impression on the other flies out
promenading, who looked at them in the coolest manner (as if they
themselves were elephants, or something as far removed), until
they met the same fate. Curious to consider how heedless flies
are!—perhaps they thought as much at Court that sunny summer
day.
A figure entering at the door threw a shadow on Madame
Defarge which she felt to be a new one. She laid down her
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knitting, and began to pin her rose in her head-dress, before she
looked at the figure.
It was curious. The moment Madame Defarge took up the rose,
the customers ceased talking, and began gradually to drop out of
the wine-shop.
「Good day, madame,」 said the newcomer.
「Good day, monsieur.」
She said it aloud, but added to herself, as she resumed her
knitting: 「Hah! Good day, age about forty, height about five feet
nine, black hair, generally rather handsome visage, complexion
dark, eyes dark, thin long and sallow face, aquiline nose but not
straight, having a peculiar inclination towards the left cheek which
imparts a sinister expression! Good day, one and all!」
「Have the goodness to give me a little glass of old cognac, and a
mouthful of cool fresh water, madame.」
Madame complied with a polite air.
「Marvellous cognac this, madame!」
It was the first time it had ever been so complimented, and
Madame Defarge knew enough of its antecedents to know better.
She said, however, that the cognac was flattered, and took up her
knitting. The visitor watched her fingers for a few moments, and
took the opportunity of observing the place in general.
「You knit with great skill, madame.」
「I am accustomed to it.」
「A pretty pattern too!」
「You think so?」 said madame, looking at him with a smile.
「Decidedly. May one ask what it is for?」
「Pastime,」 said madame, still looking at him with a smile, while
her fingers moved nimbly.
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「Not for use?」
「That depends. I may find a use for it one day. If I do—well,」
said madame, drawing a breath and nodding her head with a stern
kind of coquetry, 「I』ll use it!」
It was remarkable; but, the taste of Saint Antoine seemed to be
decidedly opposed to a rose on the head-dress of Madame Defarge.
Two men had entered separately, and had been about to order
drink, when, catching sight of that novelty, they faltered, made a
pretence of looking about as if for some friend who was not there,
and went away. Nor, of those who had been there when this visitor
entered, was there one left. They had all dropped off. The spy had
kept his eyes open, but had been able to detect no sign. They had
lounged away in a poverty-stricken, purposeless, accidental
manner, quite natural and unimpeachable.
「John,」 thought madame, checking off her work as her fingers
knitted, and her eyes looked at the stranger. 「Stay long enough,
and I shall knit 『Barsad』 before you go.
「You have a husband, madame?」
「I have.」
「Children?」
「No children.」
「Business seems bad?」
「Business is very bad; the people are so poor.」
「Ah, the unfortunate, miserable people! So oppressed, too—as
you say.」
「As you say,」 madame retorted, correcting him, and deftly
knitting an extra something into his name that boded him no good.
「Pardon me; certainly it was I who said so, but you naturally
think so. Of course.」
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「I think?」 returned madame, in a high voice. 「I and my
husband have enough to do to keep this wine-shop open, without
thinking. All we think, here, is how to live. That is the subject we
think of, and it gives us, from morning to night, enough to think
about, without embarrassing our heads concerning others. I think
for others? No, no.」
The spy, who was there to pick up any crumbs he could find or
make, did not allow his baffled state to express itself in his sinister
face; but stood with an air of gossiping gallantry, leaning his elbow
on Madame Defarge』s little counter, and occasionally sipping his
cognac.
「A bad business this, madame, of Gaspard』s execution. Ah! the
poor Gaspard!」 With a sigh of great compassion.
「My faith!」 returned madame, coolly and lightly, 「if people use
knives for such purposes, they have to pay for it. He knew
beforehand what the price of his luxury was; he has paid the
price.」
「I believe,」 said the spy, dropping his soft voice to a tone that
invited confidence, and expressing an injured revolutionary
susceptibility in every muscle of his wicked face: 「I believe there is
much compassion and anger in this neighbourhood, touching the
poor fellow? Between ourselves.」
「Is there?」 asked madame, vacantly.
「Is there not?」
「—Here is my husband!」 said Madame Defarge.
As the keeper of the wine-shop entered at the door, the spy
saluted him by touching his hat, and saying, with an engaging
smile, 「Good day, Jacques!」 Defarge stopped short, and stared at
him.
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「Good day, Jacques!」 the spy repeated; with not quite so much
confidence, or quite so easy a smile under the stare.
「You deceive yourself, monsieur,」 returned the keeper of the
wine-shop. 「You mistake me for another. That is not my name. I
am Ernest Defarge.」
「It is all the same,」 said the spy, airily, but discomfited too:
「good day!」
「Good day!」 answered Defarge, drily.
「I was saying to madame, with whom I had the pleasure of
chatting when you entered, that they tell me there is—and no
wonder!—much sympathy and anger in Saint Antoine, touching
the unhappy fate of poor Gaspard.」
「No one has told me so,」 said Defarge, shaking his head. 「I
know nothing of it.」
Having said it, he passed behind the little counter, and stood
with his hand on the back of the wife』s chair, looking over that
barrier at the person to whom they were both opposed, and whom
either of them would have shot with the greatest satisfaction.
The spy, well used to his business, did not change his
unconscious attitude, but drained his little glass of cognac, took a
sip of fresh water, and asked for another glass of cognac. Madame
Defarge poured it out for him, took to her knitting again, and
hummed a little song over it.
「You seem to know the quarter well; that is to say, better than I
do?」 observed Defarge.
「Not at all, but I hope to know it better. I am so profoundly
interested in its miserable inhabitants.」
「Hah!」 muttered Defarge.
「The pleasure of conversing with you, Monsieur Defarge,
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recalls to me,」 pursued the spy, 「that I have the honour of
cherishing some interesting associations with your name.」
「Indeed!」 said Defarge, with much indifference.
「Yes, indeed. When Dr. Manette was released, you, his old
domestic, had the charge of him, I know. He was delivered to you.
You see I am informed of the circumstances?」
「Such is the fact, certainly,」 said Defarge. He had had it
conveyed to him, in an accidental touch of his wife』s elbow as she
knitted and warbled, that he would do best to answer, but always
with brevity.
「It was to you,」 said the spy, 「that his daughter came; and it
was from your care that his daughter took him, accompanied by a
neat brown monsieur; how is he called?—in a little wig—Lorry—of
the bank of Tellson and Company—over to England.」
「Such is the fact,」 repeated Defarge.
「Very interesting remembrances!」 said the spy. 「I have known
Dr. Manette and his daughter, in England.」
「Yes?」 said Defarge.
「You don』t hear much about them now?」 said the spy.
「No,」 said Defarge.
「In effect,」 madame struck in, looking up from her work and
her little song, 「we never hear about them. We received the news
of their safe arrival, and perhaps another letter, or perhaps two;
but, since then, they have gradually taken their road in life—we,
ours—and we have held no correspondence.」
「Perfectly so, madame,」 replied the spy. 「She is going to be
married.」
「Going?」 echoed madame. 「She was pretty enough to have
been married long ago. You English are cold, it seems to me.」
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「Oh! You know I am English.」
「I perceive your tongue is,」 returned madame, 「and what the
tongue is, I suppose the man is.」
He did not take the identification as a compliment; but he made
the best of it, and turned it off with a laugh. After sipping his
cognac to the end, he added:
「Yes, Miss Manette is going to be married. But not to an
Englishman; to one who, like herself, is French by birth. And
speaking of Gaspard (ah, poor Gaspard! It was cruel, cruel!), it is a
curious thing that she is going to marry the nephew of Monsieur
the Marquis, for whom Gaspard was exalted to that height of so
many feet; in other words, the present Marquis. But he lives
unknown in England, he is no Marquis there; he is Mr. Charles
Darnay. D』Aulnais is the name of his mother』s family.」
Madame Defarge knitted steadily, but the intelligence had a
palpable effect upon her husband. Do what he would, behind the
little counter, as to the striking of a light and the lighting of his
pipe, he was troubled, and his hand was not trustworthy. The spy
would have been no spy if he had failed to see it, or to record it in
his mind.
Having made, at least, this one hit, whatever it might prove to
be worth, and no customers coming in to help him to any other,
Mr. Barsad paid for what he had drunk, and took his leave: taking
occasion to say, in a genteel manner, before he departed, that he
looked forward to the pleasure of seeing Monsieur and Madame
Defarge again. For some minutes after he had emerged into the
outer presence of Saint Antoine, the husband and wife remained
exactly as he had left them, lest he should come back.
「Can it be true,」 said Defarge, in a low voice, looking down at
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his wife as he stood smoking with his hand on the back of her
chair: 「what he has said of Mam』selle Manette?」
「As he has said it,」 returned madame, lifting her eyebrows a
little, 「it is probably false. But it may be true.」
「If it is—」 Defarge began, and stopped.
「If it is?」 repeated his wife.
「—And if it does come, while we live to see it triumph—I hope,
for her sake, Destiny will keep her husband out of France.」
「Her husband』s destiny,」 said Madame Defarge, with her usual
composure, 「will take him where he is to go, and will lead him to
the end that is to end him. That is all I know.」
「But it is very strange—now, at least, is it not very strange」—
said Defarge, rather pleading with his wife to induce her to admit
it, 「that, after all our sympathy for Monsieur her father, and
herself, her husband』s name should be proscribed under your
hand at this moment, by the side of that infernal dog』s who has
just left us?」
「Stranger things than that will happen when it does come,」
answered madame. 「I have them both here, of a certainty; and
they are both here for their merits; that is enough.」
She rolled up her knitting when she had said those words, and
presently took the rose out of the handkerchief that was wound
about her head. Either Saint Antoine had an instinctive sense that
the objectionable decoration was gone, or Saint Antoine was on
the watch for its disappearance; howbeit, the Saint took courage to
lounge in, very shortly afterwards, and the wine-shop recovered its
habitual aspect.
In the evening, at which season of all others Saint Antoine
turned himself inside out, and sat on doorsteps and window-
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ledges, and came to the corners of vile streets and courts, for a
breath of air, Madame Defarge with her work in her hand was
accustomed to pass from place to place and from group to group: a
Missionary—there were many like her—such as the world will do
well never to breed again. All the women knitted. They knitted
worthless things, but, the mechanical work was a mechanical
substitute for eating and drinking; the hands moved for the jaws
and the digestive apparatus: if the bony fingers had been still, the
stomachs would have been more famine-pinched.
But, as the fingers went, the eyes went, and the thoughts. And
as Madame Defarge moved on from group to group, all three went
quicker and fiercer among every little knot of women that she had
spoken with, and left behind.
Her husband smoked at his door, looking after her with
admiration. 「A great woman,」 said he, 「a strong woman, a grand
woman, a frightfully grand woman!」
Darkness closed around, and then came the ringing of church
bells and the distant beating of the military drums in the Palace
Courtyard, as the women sat knitting, knitting. Darkness
encompassed them. Another darkness was closing in as surely,
when the church bells, then ringing pleasantly in many an airy
steeple over France, should be melted into thundering cannon;
when the military drums should be beating to drown a wretched
voice, that night all potent as the voice of Power and Plenty,
Freedom and Life. So much was closing in about the women who
sat knitting, knitting, that they their very selves were closing in
around a structure yet unbuilt, where they were to sit knitting,
knitting, counting dropping heads.
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Chapter XXIII
ONE NIGHT
N ever did the sun go down with a brighter glory on the
quiet corner in Soho, than one memorable evening when
the Doctor and his daughter sat under the plane-tree
together. Never did the moon rise with a milder radiance over
great London, than on that night when it found them still seated
under the tree, and shone upon their faces through its leaves.
Lucie was to be married tomorrow. She had reserved this last
evening for her father, and they sat alone under the plane-tree.
「You are happy, my dear father?」
「Quite, my child.」
They had said little, though they had been there a long time.
When it was yet light enough to work and read, she had neither
engaged herself in her usual work, nor had she read to him. She
had employed herself in both ways, at his side under the tree,
many and many a time; but, this time was not quite like any other,
and nothing could make it so.
「And I am very happy tonight, dear father. I am deeply happy
in the love that Heaven has so blessed—my love for Charles, and
Charles』s love for me. But, if my life were not to be still
consecrated to you, or if my marriage were so arranged as that it
would part us, even by the length of a few of these streets, I should
be more unhappy and self-reproachful now than I can tell you.
Even as it is—」 Even as it was, she could not command her voice.
In the sad moonlight, she clasped him by the neck, and laid her
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face upon his breast. In the moonlight which is always sad, as the
light of the sun itself is—as the light called human life is—at its
coming and its going.
「Dearest dear! Can you tell me, this last time, that you feel
quite, quite sure, no new affections of mine, and no new duties of
mine, will ever interpose between us? I know it well, but do you
know it? In your own heart, do you feel quite certain?」
Her father answered, with a cheerful firmness of conviction he
could scarcely have assumed, 「Quite sure, my darling! More than
that,」 he added, as he tenderly kissed her: 「my future is far
brighter, Lucie, seen through your marriage, than it could have
been—nay, than it ever was—without it.」
「If I could hope that, my father!—」
「Believe it, love! Indeed it is so. Consider how natural and how
plain it is, my dear, that it should be so. You, devoted and young,
cannot fully appreciate the anxiety I have felt that your life should
not be wasted—」 She moved her hand towards his lips, but he
took it in his, and repeated the word.
「—wasted, my child—should not be wasted, struck aside from
the natural order of things—for my sake. Your unselfishness
cannot entirely comprehend how much my mind has gone on this;
but, only ask yourself, how could my happiness be perfect, while
yours was incomplete?」
「If I had never seen Charles, my father, I should have been
quite happy with you.」
He smiled at her unconscious admission that she would have
been unhappy without Charles, having seen him; and replied:
「My child, you did see him, and it is Charles. If it had not been
Charles, it would have been another. Or, if it had been no other, I
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should have been the cause, and then the dark part of my life
would have cast its shadow beyond myself, and would have fallen
on you.」
It was the first time, except at the trial, of her ever hearing him
refer to the period of his suffering. It gave her a strange and new
sensation while his words were in her ears; and she remembered it
long afterwards.
「See!」 said the Doctor of Beauvais, raising his hand towards
the moon. 「I have looked at her, from my prison-window, when I
could not bear her light. I have looked at her when it has been
such torture to me to think of her shining upon what I had lost,
that I have beaten my head against my prison-walls. I have looked
at her, in a state so dull and lethargic, that I have thought of
nothing but the number of horizontal lines I could draw across her
at the full, and the number of perpendicular lines with which I
could intersect them.」 He added in his inward and pondering
manner, as he looked at the moon, 「It was twenty either way, I
remember, and the twentieth was difficult to squeeze in.」
The strange thrill with which she heard him go back to that
time, deepened as he dwelt upon it; but, there was nothing to
shock her in the manner of his reference. He only seemed to
contrast his present cheerfulness and felicity with the dire
endurance that was over.
「I have looked at her, speculating thousands of times upon the
unborn child from whom I had been rent. Whether it was alive.
Whether it had been born alive, or the poor mother』s shock had
killed it. Whether it was a son who would some day avenge his
father. (There was a time in my imprisonment, when my desire for
vengeance was unbearable.) Whether it was a son who would
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never know his father』s story; who might even live to weigh the
possibility of his father』s having disappeared of his own will and
act. Whether it was a daughter who would grow to be a woman.」
She drew closer to him, and kissed his cheek and his hand.
「I have pictured my daughter, to myself, as perfectly forgetful
of me—rather, altogether ignorant of me, and unconscious of me. I
have cast up the years of her age, year after year. I have seen her
married to a man who knew nothing of my fate. I have altogether
perished from the remembrance of the living, and in the next
generation my place was a blank.」
「My father! Even to hear that you had such thoughts of a
daughter who never existed, strikes to my heart as if I had been
that child.」
「You, Lucie? It is out of the consolation and restoration you
have brought to me, that these remembrances arise, and pass
between us and the moon on this last night.—What did I say just
now?」
「She knew nothing of you. She cared nothing for you.」
「So! But on other moonlight nights, when the sadness and the
silence have touched me in a different way—have affected me with
something as like a sorrowful sense of peace, as any emotion that
had pain for its foundations could—I have imagined her as coming
to me in my cell, and leading me out into the freedom beyond the
fortress. I have seen her image in the moonlight often, as I now see
you; except that I never held her in my arms; it stood between the
little grated window and the door. But, you understand that that
was not the child I am speaking of?」
「The figure was not; the—the—image; the fancy?」
「No. That was another thing. It stood before my disturbed
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sense of sight, but it never moved. The phantom that my mind
pursued, was another and more real child. Of her outward
appearance I know no more than that she was like her mother.
The other had that likeness too—as you have—but was not the
same. Can you follow me, Lucie? Hardly, I think? I doubt you
must have been a solitary prisoner to understand these perplexed
distinctions.」
His collected and calm manner could not prevent her blood
from running cold, as he thus tried to anatomise his old condition.
「In that more peaceful state, I have imagined her, in the
moonlight, coming to me and taking me out to show me that the
home of her married life was full of her loving remembrance of her
lost father. My picture was in her room, and I was in her prayers.
Her life was active, cheerful, useful; but my poor history pervaded
it all.」
「I was that child, my father. I was not half so good, but in my
love that was I.」
「And she showed me her children,」 said the Doctor of
Beauvais, 「and they had heard of me, and had been taught to pity
me. When they passed a prison of the State, they kept far from its
frowning walls, and looked up at its bars, and spoke in whispers.
She could never deliver me; I imagined that she always brought
me back after showing me such things. But then, blessed with the
relief of tears, I fell upon my knees and blessed her.」
「I am that child, I hope, my father. O my dear, my dear, will you
bless me as fervently tomorrow?」
「Lucie, I recall these old troubles in the reason that I have
tonight for loving you better than words can tell, and thanking
God for my great happiness. My thoughts, when they were wildest,
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never rose near the happiness that I have known with you, and
that we have before us.」
He embraced her, solemnly commended her to Heaven, and
humbly thanked Heaven for having bestowed her on him. By-andby, they went into the house.
There was no one bidden to the marriage but Mr. Lorry; there
was even to be no bridesmaid but the gaunt Miss Pross. The
marriage was to make no change in their place of residence; they
had been able to extend it, by taking to themselves the upper
rooms formerly belonging to the apocryphal invisible lodger, and
they desired nothing more.
Doctor Manette was very cheerful at the little supper. They
were only three at table, and Miss Pross made the third. He
regretted that Charles was not there; was more than half disposed
to object to the loving little plot that kept him away; and drank to
him affectionately.
So, the time came for him to bid Lucie good night, and they
separated. But, in the stillness of the third hour of the morning,
Lucie came downstairs again, and stole into his room; not free
from unshaped fears, beforehand.
All things, however, were in their places; all was quiet; and he
lay asleep, his white hair picturesque on the untroubled pillow,
and his hands lying quiet on the coverlet. She put her needless
candle in the shadow at a distance, crept up to his bed, and put
her lips to his; then, leaned over him, and looked at him.
Into his handsome face, the bitter waters of captivity had worn;
but, he covered up their tracks with a determination so strong,
that he held the mastery of them even in his sleep. A more
remarkable face in its quiet, resolute, and guarded struggle with
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an unseen assailant, was not to be beheld in all the wide
dominions of sleep, that night.
She timidly laid her hand on his dear breast, and put up a
prayer that she might ever be as true to him as her love aspired to
be, and as his sorrows deserved. Then, she withdrew her hand,
and kissed his lips once more, and went away. So, the sunrise
came, and the shadows of the leaves of the plane-tree moved upon
his face, as softly as her lips had moved in praying for him.
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Chapter XXIV
NINE DAYS
T he marriage-day was shining brightly, and they were
ready outside the closed door of the Doctor』s room, where
he was speaking with Charles Darnay. They were ready to
go to church; the beautiful bride, Mr. Lorry, and Miss Pross—to
whom the event, through a gradual process of reconcilement to
the inevitable, would have been one of absolute bliss, but for the
yet lingering consideration that her brother Solomon should have
been the bridegroom.
「And so,」 said Mr. Lorry, who could not sufficiently admire the
bride, and who had been moving round her to take in every point
of her quiet, pretty dress; 「and so it was for this, my sweet Lucie,
that I brought you across the Channel, such a baby! Lord bless
me! How little I thought what I was doing! How lightly I valued the
obligation I was conferring on my friend Mr. Charles!」
「You didn』t mean it,」 remarked the matter-of-fact Miss Pross,
「and therefore how could you know it? Nonsense!」
「Really? Well; but don』t cry,」 said the gentle Mr. Lorry.
「I am not crying,」 said Miss Pross; 「you are.」
「I, my Pross?」 (By this time, Mr. Lorry dared to be pleasant
with her, on occasion.)
「You were, just now; I saw you do it, and I don』t wonder at it.
Such a present of plate as you have made 』em, is enough to bring
tears into anybody』s eyes. There』s not a fork or a spoon in the
collection,」 said Miss Pross, 「that I didn』t cry over, last night after
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the box came, till I couldn』t see it.」
「I am highly gratified,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「though, upon my
honour, I had no intention of rendering those trifling articles of
remembrance invisible to any one. Dear me! This is an occasion
that makes a man speculate on all he has lost. Dear, dear, dear! To
think that there might have been a Mrs. Lorry, any time these fifty
years almost!」
「Not at all!」 From Miss Pross.
「You think there never might have been a Mrs. Lorry?」 asked
the gentleman of that name.
「Pooh!」 rejoined Miss Pross; 「you were a bachelor in your
cradle.」
「Well!」 observed Mr. Lorry, beamingly adjusting his little wig,
「that seems probable, too.」
「And you were cut out for a bachelor,」 pursued Miss Pross,
「before you were put in your cradle.」
「Then, I think,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「that I was very unhandsomely
dealt with, and that I ought to have had a voice in the selection of
my pattern. Enough! Now, my dear Lucie,」 drawing his arm
soothingly round her waist, 「I hear them moving in the next room,
and Miss Pross and I, as two formal folks of business, are anxious
not to lose the final opportunity of saying something to you that
you wish to hear. You leave your good father, my dear, in hands as
earnest and as loving as your own; he shall be taken every
conceivable care of; during the next fortnight, while you are in
Warwickshire and thereabouts, even Tellson』s shall go to the wall
(comparatively speaking) before him. And when, at the fortnight』s
end, he comes to join you and your beloved husband, on your
other fortnight』s trip in Wales, you shall say that we have sent him
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to you in the best health and in the happiest frame. Now, I hear
Somebody』s step coming to the door. Let me kiss my dear girl with
an old-fashioned bachelor blessing, before Somebody comes to
claim his own.」
For a moment, he held the fair face from him to look at the well-
remembered expression on the forehead, and then laid the bright
golden hair against his little brown wig, with a genuine tenderness
and delicacy which, if such things be old-fashioned, were as old as
Adam.
The door of the Doctor』s room opened, and he came out with
Charles Darnay. He was so deadly pale—which had not been the
case when they went in together—that no vestige of colour was to
be seen in his face. But, in the composure of his manner he was
unaltered, except that to the shrewd glance of Mr. Lorry it
disclosed some shadowy indication that the old air of avoidance
and dread had lately passed over him, like a cold wind.
He gave his arm to his daughter, and took her downstairs to the
chariot which Mr. Lorry had hired in honour of the day. The rest
followed in another carriage, and soon, in a neighbouring church,
where no strange eyes looked on, Charles Darnay and Lucie
Manette were happily married.
Besides the glancing tears that shone among the smiles of the
little group when it was done, some diamonds, very bright and
sparkling, glanced on the bride』s hand, which were newly released
from the dark obscurity of one of Mr. Lorry』s pockets. They
returned home to breakfast, and all went well, and in due course
the golden hair that had mingled with the poor shoemaker』s white
locks in the Paris garret, were mingled with them again in the
morning sunlight, on the threshold of the door at parting.
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It was a hard parting, though it was not for long. But her father
cheered her, and said at last, gently disengaging himself from her
enfolding arms, 「Take her, Charles! She is yours!」
And her agitated hand waved to them from a chaise window,
and she was gone.
The corner being out of the way of the idle and curious, and the
preparations having been very simple and few, the Doctor, Mr.
Lorry, and Miss Pross, were left quite alone. It was when they
turned into the welcome shade of the cool old hall, that Mr. Lorry
observed a great change to have come over the Doctor; as if the
golden arm uplifted there, had struck him a poisoned blow.
He had naturally repressed much, and some revulsion might
have been expected in him when the occasion for repression was
gone. But, it was the old scared lost look that troubled Mr. Lorry;
and through his absent manner of clasping his head and drearily
wandering away into his own room when they got upstairs, Mr.
Lorry was reminded of Defarge the wine-shop keeper, and the
starlight ride.
「I think,」 he whispered to Miss Pross, after anxious
consideration, 「I think we had best not speak to him just now, or
at all disturb him. I must look in at Tellson』s; so I will go there at
once and come back presently. Then, we will take him a ride in the
country, and dine there, and all will be well.」
It was easier for Mr. Lorry to look in at Tellson』s, than to look
out of Tellson』s. He was detained two hours. When he came back,
he ascended the old staircase alone, having asked no question of
the servant; going thus into the Doctor』s rooms, he was stopped by
a low sound of knocking. 「Good God!」 he said, with a start.
「What』s that?」
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Miss Pross, with a terrified face, was at his ear. 「O me, O me!
All is lost!」 cried she, wringing her hands. 「What is to be told to
Ladybird? He doesn』t know me, and is making shoes!」
Mr. Lorry said what he could to calm her, and went himself into
the Doctor』s room. The bench was turned towards the light, as it
had been when he had seen the shoemaker at his work before, and
his head was bent down, and he was very busy.
「Doctor Manette. My dear friend, Doctor Manette!」
The Doctor looked at him for a moment—half inquiringly, half
as if he were angry at being spoken to—and bent over his work
again.
He had laid aside his coat and waistcoat; his shirt was open at
the throat, as it used to be when he did that work; and even the old
haggard, faded surface of face had come back to him. He worked
hard—impatiently—as if in some sense of having been
interrupted.
Mr. Lorry glanced at the work in his hand, and observed that it
was a shoe of the old size and shape. He took up another that was
lying by him, and asked what it was?
「A young lady』s walking shoe,」 he muttered, without looking
up. 「It ought to have been finished long ago. Let it be.」
「But, Doctor Manette. Look at me!」
He obeyed, in the old mechanically submissive manner, without
pausing in his work.
「You know me, my dear friend? Think again. This is not your
proper occupation. Think, dear friend!」
Nothing would induce him to speak more. He looked up, for an
instant at a time, when he was requested to do so; but, no
persuasion would extract a word from him. He worked, and
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worked, and worked, in silence, and words fell on him as they
would have fallen on an echoless wall, or on the air. The only ray
of hope that Mr. Lorry could discover, was, that he sometimes
furtively looked up without being asked. In that, there seemed a
faint expression of curiosity or perplexity—as though he were
trying to reconcile some doubts in his mind.
Two things at once impressed themselves on Mr. Lorry, as
important above all others; the first, that this must be kept secret
from Lucie; the second that it must be kept secret from all who
knew him. In conjunction with Miss Pross, he took immediate
steps towards the latter precaution, by giving out that the Doctor
was not well, and required a few days of complete rest. In aid of
the kind deception to be practised on his daughter, Miss Pross was
to write, describing his having been called away professionally,
and referring to an imaginary letter of two or three hurried lines in
his own hand, represented to have been addressed to her by the
same post.
These measures, advisable to be taken in any case, Mr. Lorry
took in the hope of his coming to himself. If that should happen
soon, he kept another course in reserve; which was, to have a
certain opinion that he thought the best, on the Doctor』s case.
In the hope of his recovery, and of resort to this third course
being thereby rendered practicable, Mr. Lorry resolved to watch
him attentively, with as little appearance as possible of doing so.
He therefore made arrangements to absent himself from Tellson』s
for the first time in his life, and took his post by the window in the
same room.
He was not long in discovering that it was worse than useless to
speak to him, since, on being pressed, he became worried. He
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abandoned that attempt on the first day, and resolved merely to
keep himself always before him, as a silent protest against the
delusion into which he had fallen, or was falling. He remained,
therefore, in his seat near the window, reading and writing, and
expressing in as many pleasant and natural ways as he could think
of, that it was a free place.
Doctor Manette took what was given him to eat and drink, and
worked on, that first day, until it was too dark to see—worked on,
half an hour after Mr. Lorry could not have seen, for his life, to
read or write. When he put his tools aside as useless, until
morning, Mr. Lorry rose and said to him:
「Will you go out?」
He looked down at the floor on either side of him in the old
manner, looked up in the old manner, and repeated in the old low
voice:
「Out?」
「Yes; for a walk with me. Why not?」
He made no effort to say why not, and said not a word more.
But, Mr. Lorry thought he saw, as he leaned forward on his bench
in the dusk, with his elbows on his knees and his head in his
hands, that he was in some misty way asking himself, 「Why not?」
The sagacity of the man of business perceived an advantage here,
and determined to hold it.
Miss Pross and he divided the night into two watches, and
observed him at intervals from the adjoining room. He paced up
and down for a long time before he lay down; but, when he did
finally lay himself down, he fell asleep. In the morning, he was up
betimes, and went straight to his bench and to work.
On this second day, Mr. Lorry saluted him cheerfully by his
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name, and spoke to him on topics that had been of late familiar to
them. He returned no reply, but it was evident that he heard what
was said, and that he thought about it, however confusedly. This
encouraged Mr. Lorry to have Miss Pross in with her work, several
times during the day; at those times they quietly spoke of Lucie,
and of her father then present, precisely in the usual manner, and
as if there were nothing amiss. This was done without any
demonstrative accompaniment, not long enough, or often enough
to harass him; and it lightened Mr. Lorry』s friendly heart to
believe that he looked up oftener, and that he appeared to be
stirred by some perception of inconsistencies surrounding him.
When it fell dark again, Mr. Lorry asked him as before:
「Dear Doctor, will you go out?」
As before, he repeated, 「Out?」
「Yes; for a walk with me. Why not?」
This time, Mr. Lorry feigned to go out when he could extract no
answer from him, and, after remaining absent for an hour,
returned. In the meanwhile, the Doctor had removed to the seat in
the window, and had sat there looking down at the plane-tree; but
on Mr. Lorry』s return, he slipped away to his bench.
The time went very slowly on, and Mr. Lorry』s hope darkened,
and his heart grew heavier again, and grew yet heavier and
heavier every day. The third day came and went, the fourth, the
fifth. Five days, six days, seven days, eight days, nine days.
With a hope ever darkening, and with a heart always growing
heavier and heavier, Mr. Lorry passed through this anxious time.
The secret was well kept, and Lucie was unconscious and happy;
but he could not fail to observe that the shoemaker, whose hands
had been a little out at first, was growing dreadfully skilful, and
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that he had never been so intent on his work, and that his hands
had never been so nimble and expert, as in the dusk of the ninth
evening.
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Chapter XXV
AN OPINION
W orn out by anxious watching, Mr. Lorry fell asleep at his
post. On the tenth morning of his suspense, he was
startled by the shining of the sun into the room where a
slumber had overtaken him when it was dark night.
He rubbed his eyes and roused himself; but he doubted, when
he had done so, whether he was not still asleep. For, going to the
door of the Doctor』s room and looking in, he perceived that the
shoemaker』s bench and tools were put aside again, and that the
Doctor himself sat reading at the window. He was in his usual
morning dress, and his face (which Mr. Lorry could distinctly see),
though still very pale, was calmly studious and attentive.
Even when he had satisfied himself that he was awake, Mr.
Lorry felt giddily uncertain for some few moments whether the
late shoemaking might not be a disturbed dream of his own; for,
did not his eyes show him his friend before him in his accustomed
clothing and aspect, and employed as usual; and was there any
sign within their range, that the change of which he had so strong
an impression had actually happened?
It was but the inquiry of his first confusion and astonishment,
the answer being obvious. If the impression were not produced by
a real corresponding and sufficient cause, how came he, Jarvis
Lorry, there? How came he to have fallen asleep, in his clothes, on
the sofa in Dr. Manette』s consulting-room, and to be debating
these points outside the Doctor』s bedroom door in the early
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morning.
Within a few minutes, Miss Pross stood whispering at his side.
If he had had any particle of doubt left, her talk would of necessity
have resolved it; but he was by that time clear-headed, and had
none. He advised that they should let the time go by until regular
breakfast-hour, and should then meet the Doctor as if nothing
unusual had occurred. If he appeared to be in his customary state
of mind, Mr. Lorry would then cautiously proceed to seek
direction and guidance from the opinion he had been, in his
anxiety, so anxious to obtain.
Miss Pross, submitting herself to his judgment, the scheme was
worked out with care. Having abundance of time for his usual
methodical toilette, Mr. Lorry presented himself at the breakfast-
hour in his usual white linen, and with his usual neat leg. The
Doctor was summoned in the usual way, and came to breakfast.
So far as it was possible to comprehend him without
overstepping those delicate and gradual approaches which Lorry
felt to be the only safe advance, he at first supposed that his
daughter』s marriage had taken place yesterday. An incidental
allusion, purposely thrown out, to the day of the week, and the day
of the month, set him thinking and counting, and evidently made
him uneasy. In all other respects, however, he was so composedly
himself, that Mr. Lorry determined to have the aid he sought. And
that aid was his own.
Therefore, when the breakfast was done and cleared away, and
he and the Doctor were left together, Mr. Lorry said, feelingly:
「My dear Manette, I am anxious to have your opinion, in
confidence, on a very curious case in which I am deeply
interested; that is to say, it is very curious to me; perhaps, to your
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better information it may be less so.」
Glancing at his hands, which were discoloured by his late work,
the Doctor looked troubled, and listened attentively. He had
already glanced at his hands more than once.
「Dr. Manette,」 said Mr. Lorry, touching him affectionately on
the arm, 「the case is the case of a particularly dear friend of mine.
Pray give your mind to it, and advise me well for his sake—and
above all, for his daughter』s, my dear Manette.」
「If I understand,」 said the Doctor, in a subdued tone, 「some
mental shock—?」
「Yes!」
「Be explicit,」 said the Doctor. 「Spare no detail.」
Mr. Lorry saw that they understood one another, and
proceeded.
「My dear Manette, it is the case of an old and prolonged shock,
of great acuteness and severity to the affections, the feelings, the—
the—as you express it—the mind. The mind. It is the case of a
shock under which the sufferer was borne down, one cannot say
for how long, because I believe he cannot calculate the time
himself, and there are no other means of getting at it. It is the case
of a shock from which the sufferer recovered, by a process that he
cannot trace himself—as I once heard him publicly relate in a
striking manner. It is the case of a shock from which he has
recovered, so completely, as to be a highly intelligent man, capable
of close application of mind, and great exertion of body, and of
constantly making fresh additions to his stock of knowledge,
which was already very large. But, unfortunately, there has been,」
he paused and took a deep breath—「a slight relapse.」
The Doctor, in a low voice, asked, 「Of how long duration?」
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「Nine days and nights.」
「How did it show itself? I infer,」 glancing at his hands again,
「in the resumption of some old pursuit connected with the
shock?」
「That is the fact.」
「Now, did you ever see him,」 asked the Doctor, distinctly and
collectedly, though in the same low voice, 「engaged in that pursuit
originally?」
「Once.」
「And when the relapse fell on him, was he in most respects—or
in all respects—as he was then?」
「I think in all respects.」
「You spoke of his daughter. Does his daughter know of the
relapse?」
「No. It has been kept from her, and I hope will always be kept
from her. It is known only to myself, and to one other who may be
trusted.」
The Doctor grasped his hand, and murmured, 「That was very
kind. That was very thoughtful!」 Mr. Lorry grasped his hand in
return, and neither of the two spoke for a little while.
「Now, my dear Manette,」 said Mr. Lorry, at length in his most
considerate and most affectionate way. 「I am a mere man of
business, and unfit to cope with such intricate and difficult
matters. I do not possess the kind of information necessary; I do
not possess the kind of intelligence; I want guiding. There is no
man in this world on whom I could so rely for right guidance, as
on you. Tell me, how does this relapse come about? Is there
danger of another? Could a repetition of it be prevented? How
should a repetition of it be treated? How does it come about at all?
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What can I do for my friend? No man ever can have been more
desirous in his heart to serve a friend, than I am to serve mine, if I
knew how. But I don』t know how to originate, in such a case. If
your sagacity, knowledge, and experience, could put me on the
right track, I might be able to do so much; unenlightened and
undirected, I can do so little. Pray discuss it with me; pray enable
me to see it a little more clearly, and teach me how to be a little
more useful.」
Doctor Manette sat meditating after these earnest words were
spoken, and Mr. Lorry did not press him.
「I think it probable,」 said the Doctor, breaking silence with an
effort, 「that the relapse you have described, my dear friend, was
not quite unforeseen by its subject.」
「Was it dreaded by him?」 Mr. Lorry ventured to ask.
「Very much.」 He said it with an involuntary shudder.
「You have no idea how such an apprehension weighs on the
sufferer』s mind, and how difficult—how almost impossible—it is,
for him to force himself to utter a word upon the topic that
oppresses him.」
「Would he,」 asked Mr. Lorry, 「be sensibly relieved if he could
prevail upon himself to impart that secret brooding to any one,
when it is on him?」
「I think so. But it is, as I told you, next to impossible. I even
believe it—in some cases—to be quite impossible.」
「Now,」 said Mr. Lorry, gently laying his hand on the Doctor』s
arm again, after a short silence on both sides, 「to what would you
refer this attack?」
「I believe,」 returned Doctor Manette, 「that there had been a
strong and extraordinary revival of the train of thought and
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remembrance that was the first cause of the malady. Some intense
associations of the most distressing nature were vividly recalled, I
think. It is probable that there had long been a dread lurking in
his mind, that those associations would be recalled—say, under
certain circumstances—say, on a particular occasion. He tried to
prepare himself in vain; perhaps the effort to prepare himself
made him less able to bear it.」
「Would he remember what took place in the relapse?」 asked
Mr. Lorry with natural hesitation.
The Doctor looked desolately round the room, shook his head,
and answered, in a low voice, 「Not at all.」
「Now, as to the future,」 hinted Mr. Lorry.
「As to the future,」 said the Doctor, recovering firmness, 「I
should have great hope. As it pleased Heaven in its mercy to
restore him so soon, I should have great hope. He, yielding under
the pressure of a complicated something, long dreaded and long
vaguely foreseen and contended against, and recovering after the
cloud had burst and passed, I should hope the worst was over.」
「Well, well! That』s good comfort. I am thankful!」 said Mr.
Lorry.
「I am thankful!」 repeated the Doctor, bending his head with
reverence.
「There are two other points,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「on which I am
anxious to be instructed. I may go on?」
「You cannot do your friend a better service.」 The Doctor gave
him his hand.
「To the first, then. He is of a studious habit, and unusually
energetic; he applies himself with great ardour to the acquisition
of professional knowledge, to the conducting of experiments, to
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many things. Now, does he do too much?」
「I think not. It may be the character of his mind, to be always in
singular need of occupation. That may be, in part, natural to it; in
part, the result of affliction. The less it was occupied with healthy
things, the more it would be in danger of turning in the unhealthy
direction. He may have observed himself, and made the
discovery.」
「You are sure that he is not under too great a strain?」
「I think I am quite sure of it.」
「My dear Manette, if he were overworked now—」
「My dear Lorry, I doubt if that could easily be. There has been
a violent stress in one direction, and it needs a counterweight.」
「Excuse me, as a persistent man of business. Assuming, for a
moment, that he was overworked; it would show itself in some
renewal of this disorder?」
「I do not think so. I do not think,」 said Doctor Manette with the
firmness of self-conviction, 「that anything but the one train of
association would renew it. I think that, henceforth, nothing but
some extraordinary jarring of that chord could renew it. After
what has happened, and after his recovery, I find it difficult to
imagine any such violent sounding of that string again. I trust, and
I almost believe, that the circumstances likely to renew it are
exhausted.」
He spoke with the diffidence of a man who knew how slight a
thing would overset the delicate organisation of the mind, and yet
with the confidence of a man who had slowly won his assurance
out of personal endurance and distress. It was not for his friend to
abate that confidence. He professed himself more relieved and
encouraged than he really was, and approached his second and
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last point. He felt it to be the most difficult of all; but,
remembering his old Sunday morning conversation with Miss
Pross, and remembering what he had seen in the last nine days, he
knew that he must face it.
「The occupation resumed under the influence of this passing
affliction so happily recovered from,」 said Mr. Lorry, clearing his
throat, 「we will call Blacksmith』s work, Blacksmith』s work. We will
say, to put a case and for the sake of illustration, that he had been
used, in his bad time, to work at a little forge. We will say that he
was unexpectedly found at his forge again. Is it not a pity that he
should keep it by him?」
The Doctor shaded his forehead with his hand, and beat his foot
nervously on the ground.
「You do not find it easy to advise me?」 said Mr. Lorry. 「I quite
understand it to be a nice question. And yet I think—」 And there
he shook his head, and stopped.
「You see,」 said Doctor Manette, turning to him after an uneasy
pause, 「it is very hard to explain, consistently, the innermost
workings of this poor man』s mind. He once yearned so frightfully
for that occupation, and it was so welcome when it came; no doubt
it relieved his pain so much, by substituting the perplexity of the
fingers for the perplexity of the brain, and by substituting, as he
became more practised, the ingenuity of the hands, for the
ingenuity of the mental torture; that he has never been able to
bear the thought of putting it quite out of his reach. Even now,
when I believe he is more hopeful of himself than he has ever
been, and even speaks of himself with a kind of confidence, the
idea that he might need that old employment, and not find it, gives
him a sudden sense of terror, like that which one may fancy
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strikes to the heart of a lost child.」
He looked like his allusion as he raised his eyes to Mr. Lorry』s
face.
「But may not—mind! I ask for information, as a plodding man
of business who only deals with such material objects as guineas,
shillings, and banknotes—may not the retention of the thing
involve the retention of the idea? If the thing were gone, my dear
Manette, might not the fear go with it? In short, is it not a
concession to the misgiving, to keep the forge?」
There was another silence.
「You see, too,」 said the Doctor, tremulously, 「it is such an old
companion.」
「I would not keep it,」 said Mr. Lorry, shaking his head; for he
gained in firmness as he saw the Doctor disquieted. 「I would
recommend him to sacrifice it. I only want your authority. I am
sure it does no good. Come! Give me your authority, like a dear
good man. For his daughter』s sake, my dear Manette!」
Very strange to see what a struggle there was within him!
「In her name, then, let it be done; I sanction it. But, I would not
take it away while he was present. Let it be removed when he is
not there; let him miss his old companion after an absence.」
Mr. Lorry readily engaged for that, and the conference was
ended. They passed the day in the country, and the Doctor was
quite restored. On the three following days he remained perfectly
well, and on the fourteenth day he went away to join Lucie and
her husband. The precaution that had been taken to account for
his silence, Mr. Lorry had previously explained to him, and he had
written to Lucie in accordance with it, and she had no suspicions.
On the night of the day on which he left the house, Mr. Lorry
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went into his room with a chopper, saw, chisel, and hammer,
attended by Miss Pross carrying a light. There, with closed doors,
and in a mysterious and guilty manner, Mr. Lorry hacked the
shoemaker』s bench to pieces, while Miss Pross held the candle as
if she were assisting at a murder—for which, indeed, in her
grimness, she was no unsuitable figure. The burning of the body
(previously reduced to pieces convenient for the purpose) was
commenced without delay in the kitchen fire; and the tools, shoes,
and leather, were buried in the garden. So wicked do destruction
and secrecy appear to honest minds, that Mr. Lorry and Miss
Pross, while engaged in the commission of their deed and in the
removal of its traces, almost felt, and almost looked, like
accomplices in a horrible crime.
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Chapter XXVI
A PLEA
W hen the newly-married pair came home, the first person
who appeared, to offer his congratulations, was Sydney
Carton. They had not been at home many hours, when
he presented himself. He was not improved in habits, or in looks,
or in manner; but there was a certain rugged air of fidelity about
him, which was new to the observation of Charles Darnay.
He watched his opportunity of taking Darnay aside into a
window, and of speaking to him when no one overheard.
「Mr. Darnay,」 said Carton, 「I wish we might be friends.」
「We are already friends, I hope.」
「You are good enough to say so, as a fashion of speech; but, I
don』t mean any fashion of speech. Indeed, when I say I wish we
might be friends, I scarcely mean quite that, either.」
Charles Darnay—as was natural—asked him, in all good
humour and good-fellowship, what he did mean?
「Upon my life,」 said Carton, smiling, 「I find that easier to
comprehend in my own mind, than to convey to yours. However,
let me try. You remember a certain famous occasion when I was
more drunk than—than usual?」
「I remember a certain famous occasion when you forced me to
confess that you had been drinking.」
「I remember it too. The curse of those occasions is heavy upon
me, for I always remember them. I hope it may be taken into
account one day, when all days are at an end for me! Don』t be
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alarmed; I am not going to preach.」
「I am not at all alarmed. Earnestness in you, is anything but
alarming to me.」
「Ah!」 said Carton, with a careless wave of his hand, as if he
waved that away. 「On the drunken occasion in question (one of a
large number, as you know), I was insufferable about liking you,
and not liking you. I wish you would forget it.」
「I forgot it long ago.」
「Fashion of speech again! But, Mr. Darnay, oblivion is not so
easy to me, as you represent it to be to you. I have by no means
forgotten it, and a light answer does not help me to forget it.」
「If it was a light answer,」 returned Darnay, 「I beg your
forgiveness for it. I had no other object than to turn a slight thing,
which, to my surprise, seems to trouble you too much, aside. I
declare to you, on the faith of a gentleman, that I have long
dismissed it from my mind. Good Heaven, what was there to
dismiss! Have I had nothing more important to remember, in the
great service you rendered me that day?」
「As to the great service,」 said Carton, 「I am bound to avow to
you, when you speak of it in that way, that it was mere
professional claptrap. I don』t know that I cared what became of
you, when I rendered it.—Mind! I say when I rendered it; I am
speaking of the past.」
「You make light of the obligation,」 returned Darnay, 「but I will
not quarrel with your light answer.」
「Genuine truth, Mr. Darnay, trust me! I have gone aside from
my purpose; I was speaking about our being friends. Now, you
know me; you know I am incapable of all the higher and better
flights of men. If you doubt it, ask Stryver, and he』ll tell you so.」
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「I prefer to form my own opinion, without the aid of his.」
「Well! At any rate you know me as a dissolute dog, who has
never done any good, and never will.」
「I don』t know that you 『never will.』」
「But I do, and you must take my word for it. Well! If you could
endure to have such a worthless fellow, and a fellow of such
indifferent reputation, coming and going at odd times, I should ask
that I might be permitted to come and go as a privileged person
here; that I might be regarded as a useless (and I would add, if it
were not for the resemblance I detected between you and me), an
unornamental, piece of furniture, tolerated for its old service, and
taken no notice of. I doubt if I should abuse the permission. It is a
hundred to one if I should avail myself of it four times in a year. It
would satisfy me, I daresay, to know that I had it.」
「Will you try?」
「That is another way of saying that I am placed on the footing I
have indicated. I thank you, Darnay. I may use that freedom with
your name?」
「I think so, Carton, by this time.」
They shook hands upon it, and Sydney turned away. Within a
minute afterwards, he was, to all outward appearance, as
unsubstantial as ever.
When he was gone, and in the course of an evening passed with
Miss Pross, the Doctor, and Mr. Lorry, Charles Darnay made some
mention of this conversation in general terms, and spoke of
Sydney Carton as a problem of carelessness and recklessness. He
spoke of him, in short, not bitterly or meaning to bear hard upon
him, but as anybody might who saw him as he showed himself.
He had no idea that this could dwell in the thoughts of his fair
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young wife; but, when he afterwards joined her in their own
rooms, he found her waiting for him with the old pretty lifting of
the forehead strongly marked.
「We are thoughtful tonight!」 said Darnay, drawing his arm
about her.
「Yes, dearest Charles,」 with her hands on his breast, and the
inquiring and attentive expression fixed upon him; 「we are rather
thoughtful tonight, for we have something on our mind tonight.」
「What is it, my Lucie?」
「Will you promise not to press one question on me, if I beg you
not to ask it?」
「Will I promise? What will I not promise to my Love?」
What, indeed, with his hand putting aside the golden hair from
the cheek, and his other hand against the heart that beat for him!
「I think, Charles, poor Mr. Carton deserves more consideration
and respect than you expressed for him tonight.」
「Indeed, my own? Why so?」
「That is what you are not to ask me! But I think—I know—he
does.」
「If you know it, it is enough. What would you have me do, my
Life?」
「I would ask you, dearest, to be very generous with him always,
and very lenient on his faults when he is not by. I would ask you to
believe that he has a heart he very, very seldom reveals, and that
there are deep wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding.」
「It is a painful reflection to me,」 said Charles Darnay, quite
astounded, 「that I should have done him any wrong. I never
thought this of him.」
「My husband, it is so. I fear he is not to be reclaimed; there is
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scarcely a hope that anything in his character or fortunes is
reparable now. But, I am sure that he is capable of good things,
gentle things, even magnanimous things.」
She looked so beautiful in the purity of her faith in this lost
man, that her husband could have looked at her as she was for
hours.
「And, O my dearest Love!」 she urged, clinging nearer to him,
laying her head upon his breast, and raising her eyes to his,
「remember how strong we are in our happiness, and how weak he
is in his misery!」
The supplication touched him home. 「I will always remember
it, dear Heart. I will remember it as long as I live.」
He bent over the golden head, and put the rosy lips to his, and
folded her in his arms. If one forlorn wanderer then pacing the
dark streets, could have heard her innocent disclosure, and could
have seen the drops of pity kissed away by her husband from the
soft blue eyes so loving of that husband, he might have cried to the
night—and the words would not have parted from his lips for the
first time—「God bless her for her sweet compassion!」
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Chapter XXVII
ECHOING FOOTSTEPS
Awonderful corner for echoes, it has been remarked, that
corner where the Doctor lived. Ever busily winding the
golden thread which bound her husband, and her father,
and herself, and her old directress and companion, in a life of
quiet bliss, Lucie sat in the still house on the tranquilly resounding
corner, listening to the echoing footsteps of years.
At first, there were times, though she was a perfectly happy
young wife, when her work would slowly fall from her hands, and
her eyes would be dimmed. For, there was something coming in
the echoes, something light, afar off, and scarcely audible yet, that
stirred her heart too much. Fluttering hopes and doubts—hopes,
of a love as yet unknown to her: doubts, of her remaining upon
earth, to enjoy that new delight—divided her breast. Among the
echoes then, there would arise the sound of footsteps at her own
early grave; and thoughts of the husband who would be left so
desolate, and who would mourn for her so much, swelled to her
eyes, and broke like waves.
That time passed, and her little Lucie lay on her bosom. Then,
among the advancing echoes, there was the tread of her tiny feet
and the sound of her prattling words. Let greater echoes resound
as they would, the young mother at the cradle side could always
hear those coming. They came, and the shady house was sunny
with a child』s laugh, and the Divine friend of children, to whom in
her trouble she had confided hers, seemed to take her child in His
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arms, as He took the child of old, and made it a sacred joy to her.
Ever busily winding the golden thread that bound them all
together, weaving the service of her happy influence through the
tissue of all their lives, and making it predominate nowhere, Lucie
heard in the echoes of years none but friendly and soothing
sounds. Her husband』s step was strong and prosperous among
them; her father』s firm and equal. Lo, Miss Pross, in harness of
string, awakening the echoes, as an unruly charger, whip-
corrected, snorting and pawing the earth under the plane-tree in
the garden!
Even when there were sounds of sorrow among the rest, they
were not harsh nor cruel. Even when golden hair, like her own, lay
in a halo on a pillow round the worn face of a little boy, and he
said, with a radiant smile, 「Dear papa and mamma, I am very
sorry to leave you both, and to leave my pretty sister; but I am
called, and I must go!」 those were not tears all of agony that
wetted his young mother』s cheek as the spirit departed from her
embrace that had been entrusted to it. Suffer them and forbid
them not. They see my Father』s face. O Father, blessed words!
Thus, the rustling of an Angel』s wings got blended with the
other echoes, and they were not wholly of earth, but had in them
that breath of Heaven. Sighs of the winds that blew over a little
garden-tomb were mingled with them also, and both were audible
to Lucie, in a hushed murmur—like the breathing of a summer sea
asleep upon a sandy shore—as the little Lucie, comically studious
at the task of the morning, or dressing a doll at her mother』s
footstool, chattered in the tongues of the Two Cities that were
blended in her life.
The echoes rarely answered to the actual tread of Sydney
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Carton. Some half-dozen times a year, at most, he claimed his
privilege of coming in uninvited, and would sit among them
through the evening, as he had once done often. He never came
there heated with wine. And one other thing regarding him was
whispered in the echoes, which has been whispered by all true
echoes for ages and ages.
No man ever really loved a woman, lost her, and knew her with
a blameless though an unchanged mind, when she was a wife and
a mother, but her children had a strange sympathy with him—an
instinctive delicacy of pity for him. What fine hidden sensibilities
are touched in such a case, no echoes tell; but it is so, and it was so
here. Carton was the first stranger to whom little Lucie held out
her chubby arms, and he kept his place with her as she grew. The
little boy had spoken of him, almost at the last. 「Poor Carton! Kiss
him for me!」
Mr. Stryver shouldered his way through the law, like some
great engine forcing itself through turbid water, and dragged his
useful friend in his wake, like a boat towed astern. As the boat so
favoured is usually in a rough plight, and mostly under water, so,
Sydney had a swamped life of it. But, easy and strong custom,
unhappily so much easier and stronger in him than any
stimulating sense of desert or disgrace, made it the life he was to
lead; and he no more thought of emerging from his state of lion』s
jackal, than any real jackal may be supposed to think of rising to
be a lion. Stryver was rich; had married a florid widow with
property and three boys, who had nothing particularly shining
about them but the straight hair of their dumpling heads.
These three young gentlemen, Mr. Stryver, exuding patronage
of the most offensive quality from every pore, had walked before
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him like three sheep to the quiet corner in Soho, and had offered
as pupils to Lucie』s husband: delicately saying, 「Halloa! here are
three lumps of bread-and-cheese towards your matrimonial picnic,
Darnay!」 The polite rejection of the three lumps of bread-andcheese had quite bloated Mr. Stryver with indignation, which he
afterwards turned to account in the training of the young
gentlemen, by directing them to beware of the pride of Beggars,
like that tutor-fellow. He was also in the habit of declaiming to
Mrs. Stryver, over his full-bodied wine, on the arts Mrs. Darnay
had once put in practice to 『catch』 him, and on the diamond-cutdiamond arts in himself, madam, which had rendered him 『not to
be caught.』 Some of his King』s Bench familiars, who were
occasionally parties to the full-bodied wine, and the lie, excused
him for the latter by saying that he had told it so often, that he
believed it himself—which is surely such an incorrigible
aggravation of an originally bad offence, as to justify any such
offender』s being carried off to some suitably retired spot, and
there hanged out of the way.
These were among the echoes to which Lucie, sometimes
pensive, sometimes amused and laughing, listened in the echoing
corner, until her little daughter was six years old. How near to her
heart the echoes of her child』s tread came, and those of her own
dear father』s, always active and self-possessed, and those of her
dear husband』s, need not be told. Nor, how the lightest echo of
their united home, directed by herself with such a wise and
elegant thrift that it was more abundant than any waste, was
music to her. Nor, how there were echoes all about her, sweet in
her ears, of the many times her father had told her that he found
her more devoted to him married (if that could be) than single, and
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of the many times her husband had said to her that no cares and
duties seemed to divide her love for him or her help to him, and
asked her 「What is the magic secret, my darling, of your being
everything to all of us, as if there were only one of us, yet never
seeming to be hurried, or to have too much to do?」
But, there were other echoes, from a distance, that rumbled
menacingly in the corner all through this space of time. And it was
now, about little Lucie』s sixth birthday, that they began to have an
awful sound, as of a great storm in France with a dreadful sea
rising.
On a night in mid-July, one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-nine, Mr. Lorry came in late, from Tellson』s, and sat himself
down by Lucie and her husband in the dark window. It was a hot,
wild night, and they were all three reminded of the old Sunday
night when they had looked at the lightning from the same place.
「I began to think,」 said Mr. Lorry, pushing his brown wig back,
「that I should have to pass the night at Tellson』s. We have been so
full of business all day, that we have not known what to do first, or
which way to turn. There is such an uneasiness in Paris, that we
have actually a run of confidence upon us! Our customers over
there, seem not to be able to confide their property to us fast
enough. There is positively a mania among some of them for
sending it to England.」
「That has a bad look,」 said Darnay.
「A bad look, you say, my dear Darnay? Yes, but we don』t know
what reason there is in it. People are so unreasonable! Some of us
at Tellson』s are getting old, and we really can』t be troubled out of
the ordinary course without due occasion.」
「Still,」 said Darnay, 「you know how gloomy and threatening
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the sky is.」
「I know that, to be sure,」 assented Mr. Lorry, trying to
persuade himself that his sweet temper was soured, and that he
grumbled, 「but I am determined to be peevish after my long day』s
botheration. Where is Manette?」
「Here he is,」 said the Doctor, entering the dark room at the
moment.
「I am quite glad you are at home; for these hurries and
forebodings by which I have been surrounded all day long, have
made me nervous without reason. You are not going out, I hope?」
「No; I am going to play backgammon with you, if you like,」 said
the Doctor.
「I don』t think I do like, if I may speak my mind. I am not fit to
be pitted against you tonight. Is the teaboard still there, Lucie? I
can』t see.」
「Of course, it has been kept for you.」
「Thank ye, my dear. The precious child is safe in bed?」
「And sleeping soundly.」
「That』s right; all safe and well! I don』t know why anything
should be otherwise than safe and well here, thank God; but I have
been so put out all day, and I am not as young as I was! My tea, my
dear! Thank ye. Now, come and take your place in the circle, and
let us sit quiet, and hear the echoes about which you have your
theory.」
「Not a theory; it was a fancy.」
「A fancy, then, my wise pet,」 said Mr. Lorry, patting her hand.
「They are very numerous and very loud, though, are they not?
Only hear them!」
Headlong, mad, and dangerous footsteps to force their way into
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anybody』s life, footsteps not easily made clean again if once
stained red, the footsteps raging in Saint Antoine afar off, as the
little circle sat in the dark London window.
Saint Antoine had been, that morning, a vast dusky mass of
scarecrows heaving to and fro, with frequent gleams of light above
the billowy heads, where steel blades and bayonets shone in the
sun. A tremendous roar arose from the throat of Saint Antoine,
and a forest of naked arms struggled in the air like shrivelled
branches of trees in a winter wind; all the fingers convulsively
clutching at every weapon or semblance of a weapon that was
thrown up from the depths below, no matter how far off.
Who gave them out, whence they last came, where they began,
through what agency they crookedly quivered and jerked, scores
at a time, over the heads of the crowd, like a kind of lightning, no
eye in the throng could have told; but, muskets were being
distributed—so were cartridges, powder and ball, bars of iron and
wood, knives, axes, pikes, every weapon that distracted ingenuity
could discover or devise. People who could lay hold of nothing
else, set themselves with bleeding hands to force stones and bricks
out of their places in walls. Every pulse and heart in Saint Antoine
was on high-fever strain and at high-fever heat. Every living
creature there held life as of no account, and was demented with a
passionate readiness to sacrifice it.
As a whirlpool of boiling waters has a centre point, so, all this
raging circled round Defarge』s wine-shop, and every human drop
in the caldron had a tendency to be sucked towards the vortex
where Defarge himself, already begrimed with gunpowder and
sweat, issued orders, issued arms, thrust this man back, dragged
this man forward, disarmed one to arm another, laboured and
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strove in the thickest of the uproar.
「Keep near to me, Jacques Three,」 cried Defarge; 「and do you,
Jacques One and Two, separate and put yourselves at the head of
as many of these patriots as you can. Where is my wife?」
「Eh, well! Here you see me!」 said madame, composed as ever,
but not knitting today. Madame』s resolute right hand was
occupied with an axe, in place of the usual softer implements, and
in her girdle were a pistol and a cruel knife.
「Where do you go, my wife?」
「I go,」 said madame, 「with you at present. You shall see me at
the head of women, by-and-by.」
「Come then!」 cried Defarge, in a resounding voice. 「Patriots
and friends, we are ready! The Bastille!」
With a roar that sounded as if all the breath in France had been
shaped into the detested word, the living sea rose, wave on wave,
depth on depth, and overflowed the city to that point. Alarm-bells
ringing, drums beating, the sea raging and thundering on its new
beach, the attack begun.
Deep ditches, double drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight
great towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke. Through the fire
and through the smoke—in the fire and in the smoke, for the sea
cast him up and against a cannon, and on the instant he became a
cannonier—Defarge of the wine-shop worked like a manful
soldier, two fierce hours.
Deep ditch, single drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight great
towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke. One drawbridge down!
「Work, comrades all, work! Work, Jacques One, Jacques Two,
Jacques One Thousand, Jacques Two Thousand, Jacques Five-
and Twenty Thousand; in the name of all the Angels or the
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Devils—which you prefer—work!」 Thus Defarge of the wine-shop,
still at his gun, which had long grown hot.
「To me, women!」 cried madame his wife, 「What! We can kill as
well as the men when the place is taken!」 And to her, with a shrill
thirsty cry, trooping women variously armed, but all armed alike
in hunger and revenge.
Cannon, muskets, fire and smoke; but still the deep ditch, the
single drawbridge, the massive stone walls, and the eight great
towers. Slight displacements of the raging sea, made by the falling
wounded. Flashing weapons, blazing torches, smoking waggon-
loads of wet straw, hard work at neighbouring barricades in all
directions, shrieks, volleys, execrations, bravery without stint,
boom smash and rattle, and the furious sounding of the living sea;
but, still the deep ditch, and the single drawbridge, and the
massive stone walls, and the eight great towers, and still Defarge
of the wine-shop at his gun, grown doubly hot by the service of
four fierce hours.
A white flag from within the fortress, and a parley—this dimly
perceptible through the raging storm, nothing audible in it—
suddenly the sea rose immeasurably, wider and higher, and swept
Defarge of the wine-shop over the lowered drawbridge, past the
massive stone outer walls, in among the eight great towers
surrendered!
So resistless was the force of the ocean bearing him on, that
even to draw his breath or turn his head was as impracticable as if
he had been struggling in the surf at the South Sea, until he was
landed in the outer courtyard of the Bastille. There, against an
angle of a wall, he made a struggle to look about him. Jacques
Three was nearly at his side; Madame Defarge, still heading some
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of her women, was visible in the inner distance, and her knife was
in her hand. Everywhere was tumult, exultation, deafening and
maniacal bewilderment, astounding noise, yet furious dumb-show.
「The Prisoners!」
「The Records!」
「The secret cells!」
「The instruments of torture!」
「The Prisoners!」
Of all these cries, and ten thousand incoherencies, 「The
Prisoners!」 was the cry most taken up by the sea that rushed in, as
if there were an eternity of people, as well as of time and space.
When the foremost billows rolled past, bearing the prison officers
with them, and threatening them all with instant death if any
secret nook remained undisclosed, Defarge laid his strong hand on
the breast of one of these men—a man with a grey head, who had
a lighted torch in his hands—separated him from the rest, and got
him between himself and the wall.
「Show me the North Tower!」 said Defarge. 「Quick!」
「I will faithfully,」 replied the man, 「if you will come with me.
But there is no one there.」
「What is the meaning of One Hundred and Five, North
Tower?」 asked Defarge. 「Quick!」
「The meaning, monsieur?」
「Does it mean a captive, or a place of captivity? Or do you mean
that I shall strike you dead?」
「Kill him!」 croaked Jacques Three, who had come close up.
「Monsieur, it is a cell.」
「Show it me!」
「Pass this way, then.」
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Jacques Three, with his usual craving on him, and evidently
disappointed by the dialogue taking a turn that did not seem to
promise bloodshed, held by Defarge』s arm as he held by the
turnkey』s. Their three heads had been close together during this
brief discourse, and it had been as much as they could do to hear
one another, even then: so tremendous was the noise of the living
ocean, in its irruption into the Fortress, and its inundation of the
courts and passages and staircases. All around outside, too, it beat
the walls with a deep, hoarse roar, from which, occasionally, some
partial shouts of tumult broke and leaped into the air like spray.
Through gloomy vaults where the light of day had never shone,
past hideous doors of dark dens and cages, down cavernous flights
of steps, and again up steep rugged ascents of stone and brick,
more like dry waterfalls than staircases, Defarge, the turnkey, and
Jacques Three, linked hand and arm, went with all the speed they
could make. Here and there, especially at first, the inundation
started on them and swept by; but when they had done
descending, and were winding and climbing up a tower, they were
alone. Hemmed in here by the massive thickness of walls and
arches, the storm within the fortress and without was only audible
to them in a dull, subdued way, as if the noise out of which they
had come had almost destroyed their sense of hearing.
The turnkey stopped at a low door, put a key in a clashing lock,
swung the door slowly open, and said, as they all bent their heads
and passed in—「One Hundred and Five, North Tower!」
There was a small, heavily-grated, unglazed window high in the
wall, with a stone screen before it, so that the sky could be only
seen by stooping low and looking up. There was a small chimney,
heavily barred across, a few feet within. There was a heap of old
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feathery wood-ashes on the hearth. There was a stool, and table,
and a straw bed. There were the four blackened walls, and a
rusted iron ring in one of them.
「Pass that torch slowly along these walls, that I may see them,」
said Defarge to the turnkey.
「Stop!—Look here, Jacques!」
「A. M.!」 creaked Jacques Three, as he read greedily.
「Alexandre Manette,」 said Defarge in his ear, following the
letters with his swart forefinger, deeply engrained with
gunpowder. 「And here he wrote 『a poor physician.』 And it was he,
without doubt, who scratched a calendar on this stone. What is
that in your hand? A crowbar? Give it me!」
He had still the linstock of his gun in his own hand. He made a
sudden exchange of the two instruments, and turning on the
worm-eaten stool and table, beat them to pieces in a few blows.
「Hold the light higher!」 he said, wrathfully, to the turnkey.
「Look among those fragments with care, Jacques. And see! Here
is my knife,」 throwing it to him; 「rip open that bed, and search the
straw. Hold the light higher, you!」
With a menacing look at the turnkey he crawled upon the
hearth, and, peering up the chimney, struck and prised at its sides
with the crowbar, and worked at the iron grating across it. In a few
minutes, some mortar and dust came dropping down, which he
averted his face to avoid; and in it, and in the old wood-ashes, and
in a crevice in the chimney into which his weapon had slipped or
wrought itself, he groped with a cautious touch.
「Nothing in the wood, and nothing in the straw, Jacques?」
「Nothing.」
「Let us collect them together, in the middle of the cell. So!
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Light them, you!」
The turnkey fired the little pile, which blazed high and hot.
Stooping again to come out at the low-arched door, they left it
burning, and retraced their way to the courtyard; seeming to
recover their sense of hearing as they came down, until they were
in the raging flood once more.
They found it surging and tossing, in quest of Defarge himself.
Saint Antoine was clamorous to have its wine-shop keeper
foremost in the guard upon the governor who had defended the
Bastille and shot the people. Otherwise, the governor would not be
marched to the Hotel de Ville for judgment. Otherwise, the
governor would escape, and the people』s blood (suddenly of some
value, after many years of worthlessness) be unavenged.
In the howling universe of passion and contention that seemed
to encompass this grim old officer conspicuous in his grey coat and
red decoration, there was but one quite steady figure, and that was
a woman』s. 「See, there is my husband!」 she cried, pointing him
out. 「See Defarge!」 She stood immovable close to the grim old
officer, and remained immovable close to him; remained
immovable close to him through the streets, as Defarge and the
rest bore him along; remained immovable close to him when he
was got near his destination, and began to be struck at from
behind; remained immovable close to him when the long-
gathering rain of stabs and blows fell heavy; was so close to him
when he dropped dead under it, that, suddenly animated, she put
her foot upon his neck, and with her cruel knife—long ready—
hewed off his head.
The hour was come when Saint Antoine was to execute his
horrible idea of hoisting up men for lamps to show what he could
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be and do. Saint Antoine』s blood was up, and the blood of tyranny
and domination by the iron hand was down—down on the steps of
the Hotel de Ville where the governor』s body lay—down on the
sole of the shoe of Madame Defarge where she had trodden on the
body to steady it for mutilation. 「Lower the lamp yonder!」 cried
Saint Antoine, after glaring round for a new means of death; 「here
is one of his soldiers to be left on guard!」 The swinging sentinel
was posted, and the sea rushed on.
The sea of black and threatening waters, and of destructive
upheaving of wave against wave, whose depths were yet
unfathomed and whose forces were yet unknown. The remorseless
sea of turbulently swaying shapes, voices of vengeance, and faces
hardened in the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could
make no mark on them.
But, in the ocean of faces where every fierce and furious
expression was in vivid life, there were two groups of faces—each
seven in number—so fixedly contrasting with the rest, that never
did sea roll which bore more memorable wrecks with it. Seven
faces of prisoners, suddenly released by the storm that had burst
their tomb, were carried high overhead; all scared, all lost, all
wandering and amazed, as if the Last Day were come, and those
who rejoiced around them were lost spirits. Other seven faces
there were, carried higher, seven dead faces, whose drooping
eyelids and half-seen eyes awaited the Last Day. Impassive faces,
yet with a suspended—not an abolished—expression on them;
faces, rather, in a fearful pause, as having yet to raise the dropped
lids of the eyes, and bear witness with the bloodless lips 「THOU
DIDST IT!」
Seven prisoners released, seven gory heads on pikes, the keys
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of the accursed fortress of the eight strong towers, some
discovered letters and other memorials of prisoners of old time,
long dead of broken hearts,—such, and suchlike, the loudly
echoing footsteps of Saint Antoine escort through the Paris streets
in mid-July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. Now,
Heaven defeat the fancy of Lucie Darnay, and keep these feet far
out of her life! For, they are headlong, mad, and dangerous; and in
the years so long after the breaking of the cask at Defarge』s wine-
shop door, they are not easily purified when once stained red.
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Chapter XXVIII
THE SEA STILL RISES
Haggard Saint Antoine had only one exultant week in
which to soften his modicum of hard and bitter bread to
such extent as he could, with the relish of fraternal
embraces and congratulations, when Madame Defarge sat at her
counter, as usual, presiding over the customers. Madame Defarge
wore no rose in her head, for the great brotherhood of Spies had
become, even in one short week, extremely chary of trusting
themselves to the saint』s mercies. The lamps across his streets had
a portentously elastic swing with them.
Madame Defarge, with her arms folded, sat in the morning light
and heat, contemplating the wine-shop and the street. In both,
there were several knots of loungers, squalid and miserable, but
now with a manifest sense of power enthroned on their distress.
The raggedest nightcap, awry on the wretchedest head, had this
crooked significance in it: 「I know how hard it has grown for me,
the wearer of this, to support life in myself; but do you know how
easy it has grown for me, the wearer of this, to destroy life in you?」
Every lean bare arm, that had been without work before, had this
work always ready for it now, that it could strike. The fingers of
the knitting women were vicious, with the experience that they
could tear. There was a change in the appearance of Saint
Antoine; the image had been hammering into this for hundreds of
years, and the last finishing blows had told mightily on the
expression.
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Madame Defarge sat observing it, with such suppressed
approval as was to be desired in the leader of the Saint Antoine
women. One of her sisterhood knitted beside her. The short,
rather plump wife of a starved grocer, and the mother of two
children withal, this lieutenant had already earned the
complimentary name of The Vengeance.
「Hark!」 said The Vengeance. 「Listen, then! Who comes?」
As if a train of powder laid from the outermost bound of the
Saint Antoine Quarter to the wine-shop door, had been suddenly
fired, a fast-spreading murmur came rushing along.
「It is Defarge,」 said madame. 「Silence, patriots!」
Defarge came in breathless, pulled off a red cap he wore, and
looked around him. 「Listen, everywhere!」 said madame again.
「Listen to him!」 Defarge stood, panting, against a background of
eager eyes and open mouths, formed outside the door; all those
within the wine-shop had sprung to their feet.
「Say then, my husband. What is it?」
「News from the other world!」
「How then?」 cried madame, contemptuously. 「The other
world?」
「Does everybody here recall old Foulon, who told the famished
people that they might eat grass, and who died, and went to Hell?」
「Everybody!」 from all throats.
「The news is of him. He is among us!」
「Among us!」 from the universal throat again. 「And dead?」
「Not dead! He feared us so much—and with reason—that he
caused himself to be represented as dead, and had a grand mock-
funeral. But they have found him alive, hiding in the country, and
have brought him in. I have seen him but now, on his way to the
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Hotel de Ville, a prisoner. I have said that he had reason to fear us.
Say all! Had he reason?」
Wretched old sinner of more than three score years and ten, if
he had never known it yet, he would have known it in his heart of
hearts if he could have heard the answering cry.
A moment of profound silence followed. Defarge and his wife
looked steadfastly at one another. The Vengeance stooped, and the
jar of a drum was heard as she moved it at her feet behind the
counter.
「Patriots!」 said Defarge, in a determined voice, 「are we ready?」
Instantly Madame Defarge』s knife was in her girdle; the drum
was beating in the streets, as if it and a drummer had flown
together by magic; and The Vengeance, uttering terrific shrieks,
and flinging her arms about her head like all the forty Furies at
once, was tearing from house to house, rousing the women.
The men were terrible, in the bloody-minded anger with which
they looked from windows, caught up what arms they had, and
came pouring down into the streets; but, the women were a sight
to chill the boldest. From such household occupations as their
bare poverty yielded, from their children, from their aged and
their sick crouching on the bare ground famished and naked, they
ran out with streaming hair, urging one another, and themselves,
to madness with the wildest cries and actions. Villain Foulon
taken, my sister! Old Foulon taken, my mother! Miscreant Foulon
taken, my daughter! Then, a score of others ran into the midst of
these, beating their breasts, tearing their hair, and screaming,
Foulon alive! Foulon who told the starving people they might eat
grass! Foulon who told my old father that he might eat grass,
when I had no bread to give him! Foulon who told my baby it
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might suck grass, when these breasts were dry with want! O
mother of God, this Foulon! O Heaven, our suffering! Hear me, my
dead baby and my withered father: I swear on my knees, on these
stones to avenge you on Foulon! Husbands, and brothers, and
young men, Give us the blood of Foulon, Give us the head of
Foulon, Give us the heart of Foulon, Give us the body and soul of
Foulon, Rend Foulon to pieces, and dig him into the ground, that
grass may grow from him! With these cries, numbers of the
women, lashed into blind frenzy, whirled about, striking and
tearing at their own friends until they dropped into a passionate
swoon, and were only saved by the men belonging to them from
being trampled under foot.
Nevertheless, not a moment was lost; not a moment! This
Foulon was at the Hotel de Ville, and might be loosed. Never, if
Saint Antoine knew his own sufferings, insults, and wrongs!
Armed men and women flocked out of the Quarter so fast, and
drew even these last dregs after them with such a force of suction,
that within a quarter of an hour there was not a human creature in
Saint Antoine』s bosom but a few old crones and the wailing
children.
No. They were all by that time choking the Hall of Examination
where this old man, ugly and wicked, was, and overflowing into
the adjacent open space and streets. The Defarges, husband and
wife, The Vengeance, and Jacques Three, were in the first press,
and at no great distance from him in the Hall.
「See!」 cried madame, pointing with her knife. 「See the old
villain bound with ropes. That was well done to tie a bunch of
grass upon his back. Ha, ha! That was well done. Let him eat it
now!」 Madame put her knife under her arm, and clapped her
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hands as at a play.
The people immediately behind Madame Defarge, explaining
the cause of her satisfaction to those behind them, and those again
explaining to others, and those to others, the neighbouring streets
resounded with the clapping of hands. Similarly, during two or
three hours of drawl, and the winnowing of many bushels of
words, Madame Defarge』s frequent expressions of impatience
were taken up, with marvellous quickness, at a distance: the more
readily, because certain men who had by some wonderful exercise
of agility climbed up the external architecture to look in from the
windows, knew Madame Defarge well, and acted as a telegraph
between her and the crowd outside the building.
At length the sun rose so high that it struck a kindly ray as of
hope or protection, directly down upon the old prisoner』s head.
The favour was too much to bear; in an instant the barrier of dust
and chaff that had stood surprisingly long, went to the winds, and
Saint Antoine had got him!
It was known directly, to the furthest confines of the crowd.
Defarge had but sprung over a railing and a table, and folded the
miserable wretch in a deadly embrace—Madame Defarge had but
followed and turned her hand in one of the ropes with which he
was tied—The Vengeance and Jacques Three were not yet up with
them, and the men at the windows had not yet swooped into the
Hall, like birds of prey from their high perches—when the cry
seemed to go up, all over the city, 「Bring him out! Bring him to the
lamp!」
Down, and up, and head foremost on the steps of the building;
now, on his knees; now, on his feet; now, on his back; dragged and
struck at, and stifled by the bunches of grass and straw that were
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thrust into his face by hundreds of hands; torn, bruised, panting,
bleeding, yet always entreating and beseeching for mercy; now full
of vehement agony of action, with a small clear space about him as
the people drew one another back that they might see; now, a log
of dead wood drawn through a forest of legs; he was hauled to the
nearest street corner where one of the fatal lamps swung, and
there Madame Defarge let him go—as a cat might have done to a
mouse—and silently and composedly looked at him while they
made ready, and while he besought her: the women passionately
screeching at him all the time, and the men sternly calling out to
have him killed with grass in his mouth. Once, he went aloft, and
the rope broke, and they caught him shrieking; twice, he went
aloft, and the rope broke, and they caught him shrieking; then, the
rope was merciful, and held him, and his head was soon upon a
pike, with grass enough in the mouth for all Saint Antoine to
dance at the sight of.
Nor was this the end of the day』s bad work, for Saint Antoine so
shouted and danced his angry blood up, that it boiled again, on
hearing when the day closed in that the son-in-law of the
despatched, another of the people』s enemies and insulters, was
coming into Paris under a guard five hundred strong, in cavalry
alone. Saint Antoine wrote his crimes on flaring sheets of paper,
seized him—would have torn him out of the breast of an army to
bear Foulon company—set his head and heart on pikes, and
carried the three spoils of the day, in Wolf-procession through the
streets.
Not before dark night did the men and women come back to the
children, wailing and breadless. Then, the miserable bakers』 shops
were beset by long files of them, patiently waiting to buy bad
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bread; and while they waited with stomachs faint and empty, they
beguiled the time by embracing one another on the triumphs of
the day, and achieving them again in gossip. Gradually, these
strings of ragged people shortened and frayed away; and then
poor lights began to shine in high windows, and slender fires were
made in the streets, at which neighbours cooked in common,
afterwards supping at their doors.
Scanty and insufficient suppers those, and innocent of meat, as
of most other sauce to wretched bread. Yet, human fellowship
infused some nourishment into the flinty viands, and struck some
sparks of cheerfulness out of them. Fathers and mothers who had
their full share in the worst of the day, played gently with their
meagre children; and lovers, with such a world around them and
before them, loved and hoped.
It was almost morning, when Defarge』s wine-shop parted with
its last knot of customers, and Monsieur Defarge said to madame
his wife, in husky tones, while fastening the door:
「At last it is come, my dear!」
「Eh well!」 returned madame. 「Almost.」
Saint Antoine slept, the Defarges slept; even The Vengeance
slept with her starved grocer, and the drum was at rest. The
drum』s was the only voice in Saint Antoine that blood and hurry
had not changed. The Vengeance, as custodian of the drum, could
have wakened him up and had the same speech out of him as
before the Bastille fell, or old Foulon was seized; not so with the
hoarse tones of the men and women in Saint Antoine』s bosom.
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Chapter XXIX
FIRE RISES
T here was a change on the village where the fountain fell,
and where the mender of roads went forth daily to
hammer out of the stones on the high way such morsels of
bread as might serve for patches to hold his poor ignorant soul
and his poor reduced body together. The prison on the crag was
not so dominant as of yore; there were soldiers to guard it, but not
many; there were officers to guard the soldiers, but not one of
them knew what his men would do—beyond this: that it would
probably not be what he was ordered.
Far and wide lay a ruined country, yielding nothing but
desolation. Every green leaf, every blade of grass and blade of
grain, was as shrivelled and poor as the miserable people.
Everything was bowed down, dejected, oppressed, and broken.
Habitations fences, domesticated animals, men, women, children,
and the soil that bore them—all worn out.
Monseigneur (often a most worthy individual gentleman) was a
national blessing, gave a chivalrous tone to things, was a polite
example of luxurious and shining life, and a great deal more to
equal purpose; nevertheless, Monseigneur as a class had,
somehow or other, brought things to this. Strange that Creation,
designed expressly for Monseigneur, should be so soon wrung dry
and squeezed out! There must be something short-sighted in the
eternal arrangements, surely! Thus it was, however; and the last
drop of blood having been extracted from the flints, and the last
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screw of the rack having been turned so often that its purchase
crumbled, and it now turned and turned with nothing to bite,
Monseigneur began to run away from a phenomenon so low and
unaccountable.
But, this was not the change on the village, and on many a
village like it. For scores of years gone by, Monseigneur had
squeezed it and wrung it, and had seldom graced it with his
presence except for the pleasures of the chase—now, found in
hunting the people; now, found in hunting the beasts, for whose
preservation Monseigneur made edifying spaces of barbarous and
barren wilderness. No. The change consisted in the appearance of
strange faces of low caste, rather than in the disappearance of the
high-caste, chiseled, and otherwise beautified and beautifying
features of Monseigneur.
For, in these times, as the mender of roads worked, solitary, in
the dust, not often troubling himself to reflect that dust he was and
to dust he must return, being for the most part too much occupied
in thinking how little he had for supper and how much more he
would eat if he had it—in these times, as he raised his eyes from
his lonely labour, and viewed the prospect, he would see some
rough figure approaching on foot, the like of which was once a
rarity in those parts, but was now a frequent presence. As it
advanced, the mender of roads would discern without surprise,
that it was a shaggy-haired man, of almost barbarian aspect, tall,
in wooden shoes that were clumsy even to the eyes of a mender of
roads, grim, rough, swart, steeped in the mud and dust of many
highways, dank with the marshy moisture of many low grounds,
sprinkled with the thorns and leaves and moss of many byways
through woods.
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Such a man came upon him, like a ghost, at noon in the July
weather, as he sat on his heap of stones under a bank, taking such
shelter as he could get from a shower of hail.
The man looked at him, looked at the village in the hollow, at
the mill, and at the prison on the crag. When he had identified
these objects in what benighted mind he had, he said, in a dialect
that was just intelligible:
「How goes it, Jacques?」
「All well, Jacques.」
「Touch then!」
They joined hands, and the man sat down on the heap of stones.
「No dinner?」
「Nothing but supper now,」 said the mender of roads, with a
hungry face.
「It is the fashion,」 growled the man. 「I meet no dinner
anywhere.」
He took out a blackened pipe, filled it, lighted it with flint and
steel, pulled at it until it was in a bright glow: then, suddenly held
it from him and dropped something into it from between his finger
and thumb, that blazed and went out in a puff of smoke.
「Touch then.」 It was the turn of the mender of roads to say it
this time, after observing these operations. They again joined
hands.
「Tonight?」 said the mender of roads.
「Tonight,」 said the man, putting the pipe in his mouth.
「Where?」
「Here.」
He and the mender of roads sat on the heap of stones looking
silently at one another, with the hail driving in between them like
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a pigmy charge of bayonets, until the sky began to clear over the
village.
「Show me!」 said the traveller then, moving to the brow of the
hill.
「See!」 returned the mender of roads, with extended finger.
「You go down here, and straight through the street, and past the
fountain—」
「To the Devil with all that!」 interrupted the other, rolling his
eye over the landscape. 「I go through no streets and past no
fountains. Well?」
「Well! About two leagues beyond the summit of that hill above
the village.」
「Good. When do you cease to work?」
「At sunset.」
「Will you wake me before departing? I have walked two nights
without resting. Let me finish my pipe, and I shall sleep like a
child. Will you wake me?」
「Surely.」
The wayfarer smoked his pipe out, put it in his breast, slipped
off his great wooden shoes, and lay down on his back on the heap
of stones. He was fast asleep directly.
As the road mender plied his dusty labour, and the hail-clouds,
rolling away, revealed bright bars and streaks of sky which were
responded to by silver gleams upon the landscape, the little man
(who wore a red cap now, in place of his blue one) seemed
fascinated by the figure on the heap of stones. His eyes were so
often turned towards it, that he used his tools mechanically, and,
one would have said, to very poor account. The bronze face, the
shaggy black hair and beard, the coarse woollen red cap, the
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rough medley dress of homespun stuff and hairy skins of beasts,
the powerful frame attenuated by spare living, and the sullen and
desperate compression of the lips in sleep, inspired the mender of
roads with awe. The traveller had travelled far, and his feet were
footsore, and his ankles chafed and bleeding; his great shoes,
stuffed with leaves and grass, had been heavy to drag over the
many long leagues, and his clothes were chafed into holes, as he
himself was into sores. Stooping down beside him, the road
mender tried to get a peep at secret weapons in his breast or
where not; but, in vain, for he slept with his arms crossed upon
him, and set as resolutely as his lips. Fortified towns with their
stockades, guardhouses, gates, trenches, and drawbridges, seemed
to the mender of roads, to be so much air as against this figure.
And when he lifted his eyes from it to the horizon and looked
around, he saw in his small fancy similar figures, stopped by no
obstacle, tending to centres all over France.
The man slept on indifferent to showers of hail and intervals of
brightness, to sunshine on his face and shadow, to the pattering
lumps of dull ice on his body and the diamonds into which the sun
changed them, until the sun was low in the west, and the sky was
glowing. Then, the mender of roads having got his tools together
and all things ready to go down into the village, roused him.
「Good!」 said the sleeper, rising on his elbow. 「Two leagues
beyond the summit of the hill?」
「About.」
「About. Good!」
The mender of roads went home, with the dust going on before
him according to the set of the wind, and was soon at the fountain,
squeezing himself in among the lean kine brought there to drink,
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and appearing even to whisper to them in his whispering to all the
village. When the village had taken its poor supper, it did not
creep to bed, as it usually did, but came out of doors again, and
remained there. A curious contagion of whispering was upon it,
and also, when it gathered together at the fountain in the dark,
another curious contagion of looking expectantly at the sky in one
direction only. Monsieur Gabelle, chief functionary of the place,
became uneasy; went out on his house-top alone, and looked in
that direction too; glanced down from behind his chimneys at the
darkening faces by the fountain below, and sent word to the
sacristan who kept the keys of the church, that there might be
need to ring the tocsin by-and-by.
The night deepened. The trees environing the old chateau,
keeping its solitary state apart, moved in a rising wind, as though
they threatened the pile of building massive and dark in the
gloom. Up the two terrace flights of steps the rain ran wildly, and
beat at the great door, like a swift messenger rousing those within;
uneasy rushes of wind went through the hall, among the old
spears and knives, and passed lamenting up the stairs, and shook
the curtains of the bed where the last Marquis had slept. East,
West, North, and South, through the woods, four heavy-treading,
unkempt figures crushed the high grass and cracked the branches,
striding on cautiously to come together in the courtyard. Four
lights broke out there, and moved away in different directions, and
all was black again.
But, not for long. Presently, the chateau began to make itself
strangely visible by some light of its own, as though it were
growing luminous. Then, a flickering streak played behind the
architecture of the front, picking out transparent places, and
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showing where balustrades, arches, and windows were. Then it
soared higher, and grew broader and brighter. Soon, from a score
of the great windows, flames burst forth, and the stone faces
awakened, stared out of fire.
A faint murmur arose about the house from the few people who
were left there, and there was a saddling of a horse and riding
away. There was spurring and splashing through the darkness,
and bridle was drawn in the space by the village fountain, and the
horse in a foam stood at Monsieur Gabelle』s door. 「Help, Gabelle!
Help, every one!」 The tocsin rang impatiently, but other help (if
that were any) there was none. The mender of roads, and two
hundred and fifty particular friends, stood with folded arms at the
fountain, looking at the pillar of fire in the sky. 「It must be forty
feet high,」 said they, grimly; and never moved.
The rider from the chateau, and the horse in a foam, clattered
away through the village, and galloped up the stony steep, to the
prison on the crag. At the gate, a group of officers were looking at
the fire; removed from them, a group of soldiers. 「Help, gentleman
officers! The chateau is on fire; valuable objects may be saved
from the flames by timely aid! Help, help!」 The officers looked
towards the soldiers who looked at the fire; gave no orders; and
answered with shrugs and biting of lips, 「It must burn.」
As the rider rattled down the hill again and through the street,
the village was illuminating. The mender of roads, and the two
hundred and fifty particular friends, inspired as one man and
woman by the idea of lighting up, had darted into their houses,
and were putting candles in every dull little pane of glass. The
general scarcity of everything, occasioned candles to be borrowed
in a rather peremptory manner of Monsieur Gabelle; and in a
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moment of reluctance and hesitation on that functionary』s part,
the mender of roads, once so submissive to authority, had
remarked that carriages were good to make bonfires with, and
that post-horses would roast.
The chateau was left to itself to flame and burn. In the roaring
and raging of the conflagration, a red-hot wind, driving straight
from the infernal regions, seemed to be blowing the edifice away.
With the rising and falling of the blaze, the stone faces showed as
if they were in torment. When great masses of stone and timber
fell, the face with the two dints in the nose became obscured: anon
struggled out of the smoke again, as if it were the face of the cruel
Marquis, burning at the stake and contending with the fire.
The chateau burned; the nearest trees, laid hold of by the fire,
scorched and shrivelled; trees at a distance, fired by the four fierce
figures, begirt the blazing edifice with a new forest of smoke.
Molten lead and iron boiled in the marble basin of the fountain;
the water ran dry; the extinguisher tops of the towers vanished
like ice before the heat, and trickled down into four rugged wells
of flame. Great rents and splits branched out in the solid walls, like
crystallisation; stupefied birds wheeled about and dropped into
the furnace; four fierce figures trudged away, East, West, North,
and South, along the night-enshrouded roads, guided by the
beacon they had lighted, towards their next destination. The
illuminated village had seized hold of the tocsin, and, abolishing
the lawful ringer, rang for joy.
Not only that; but the village, light-headed with famine, fire,
and bell-ringing, and bethinking itself that Monsieur Gabelle had
to do with the collection of rent and taxes—though it was but a
small instalment of taxes, and no rent at all, that Gabelle had got
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in those latter days—became impatient for an interview with him,
and, surrounding his house, summoned him to come forth for
personal conference. Whereupon, Monsieur Gabelle did heavily
bar his door, and retire to hold counsel with himself. The result of
that conference was, that Gabelle again withdrew himself to his
house-top behind his stack of chimneys; this time resolved, if his
door were broken in (he was a small Southern man of retaliative
temperament), to pitch himself head foremost over the parapet,
and crush a man or two below.
Probably, Monsieur Gabelle passed a long night up there with
the distant chateau for fire and candle, and the beating at his door,
combined with the joy-ringing for music; not to mention his
having an ill-omened lamp slung across the road before his
posting-house gate, which the village showed a lively inclination to
displace in his favour. A trying suspense, to be passing a whole
summer night on the brink of the black ocean, ready to take that
plunge into it upon which Monsieur Gabelle had resolved! But, the
friendly dawn appearing at last, and the rush-candles of the village
guttering out, the people happily dispersed, and Monsieur Gabelle
came down bringing his life with him for that while.
Within a hundred miles, and in the light of other fires, there
were other functionaries less fortunate, that night and other
nights, whom the rising sun found hanging across once-peaceful
streets, where they had been born and bred; also, there were other
villagers and townspeople less fortunate than the mender of roads
and his fellows, upon whom the functionaries and soldiery turned
with success, and whom they strung up in their turn. But, the
fierce figures were steadily wending East, West, North, and South,
be that as it would; and whosoever hung, fire burned. The altitude
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of the gallows that would turn to water and quench it, no
functionary, by any stretch of mathematics, was able to calculate
successfully.
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Chapter XXX
DRAWN TO THE LOADSTONE ROCK
In such risings of fire and risings of sea—the firm earth shaken
by the rushes of an angry ocean which had now no ebb, but
was always on the flow, higher and higher, to the terror and
wonder of the beholders on the shore—three years of tempest
were consumed. Three more birthdays of little Lucie had been
woven by the golden thread into the peaceful tissue of the life of
her home.
Many a night and many a day had its inmates listened to the
echoes in the corner, with hearts that failed them when they heard
the thronging feet. For, the footsteps had become to their minds as
the footsteps of a people, tumultuous under a red flag and with
their country declared in danger, changed into wild beasts, by
terrible enchantment long persisted in.
Monseigneur, as a class, had dissociated himself from the
phenomenon of his not being appreciated: of his being so little
wanted in France, as to incur considerable danger of receiving his
dismissal from it, and this life together. Like the fabled rustic who
raised the Devil with infinite pains, and was so terrified at the
sight of him that he could ask the Enemy no question, but
immediately fled; so, Monseigneur, after boldly reading the Lord』s
Prayer backwards for a great number of years, and performing
many other potent spells for compelling the Evil One, no sooner
beheld him in his terrors than he took to his noble heels.
The shining Bull』s Eye of the Court was gone, or it would have
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been the mark for a hurricane of national bullets. It had never
been a good eye to see with—had long had the mote in it of
Lucifer』s pride, Sardanapalus』s luxury, and a mole』s blindness—
but it had dropped out and was gone. The Court, from that
exclusive inner circle to its outermost rotten ring of intrigue,
corruption, and dissimulation, was all gone together. Royalty was
gone; had been besieged in its Palace and 『suspended,』 when the
last tidings came over.
The August of the year one thousand seven hundred and
ninety-two was come, and Monseigneur was by this time scattered
far and wide.
As was natural, the headquarters and great gathering-place of
Monseigneur, in London, was Tellson』s Bank. Spirits are
supposed to haunt the places where their bodies most resorted,
and Monseigneur without a guinea haunted the spot where his
guineas used to be. Moreover, it was the spot to which such
French intelligence as was most to be relied upon, came quickest.
Again: Tellson』s was a munificent house, and extended great
liberality to old customers who had fallen from their high estate.
Again: those nobles who had seen the coming storm in time, and
anticipating plunder or confiscation, had made provident
remittances to Tellson』s, were always to be heard of there by their
needy brethren. To which it must be added that every newcomer
from France reported himself and his tidings at Tellson』s, almost
as a matter of course. For such variety of reasons, Tellson』s was at
that time, as to French intelligence, a kind of High Exchange; and
this was so well known to the public, and the inquiries made there
were in consequence so numerous, that Tellson』s sometimes wrote
the latest news out in a line or so and posted it in the Bank
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windows, for all who ran through Temple Bar to read.
On a steamy, misty afternoon, Mr. Lorry sat at his desk, and
Charles Darnay stood leaning on it, talking with him in a low
voice. The penitential den once set apart for interviews with the
House, was now the news Exchange, and was filled to overflowing.
It was within half an hour or so of the time of closing.
「But, although you are the youngest man that ever lived,」 said
Charles Darnay, rather hesitating, 「I must still suggest to you—」
「I understand. That I am too old?」 said Mr. Lorry.
「Unsettled weather, a long journey, uncertain means of
travelling, a disorganised country, a city that may not be even safe
for you.」
「My dear Charles,」 said Mr. Lorry, with cheerful confidence,
「you touch some of the reasons for my going: not for my staying
away. It is safe enough for me; nobody will care to interfere with
an old fellow of hard upon fourscore when there are so many
people there much better worth interfering with. As to its being a
disorganised city, if it were not a disorganised city there would be
no occasion to send somebody from our House here to our House
there, who knows the city and the business, of old, and is in
Tellson』s confidence. As to the uncertain travelling, the long
journey, and the winter weather, if I were not prepared to submit
myself to a few inconveniences for the sake of Tellson』s, after all
these years, who ought to be?」
「I wish I were going myself,」 said Charles Darnay, somewhat
restlessly, and like one thinking aloud.
「Indeed! You are a pretty fellow to object and advise!」
exclaimed Mr. Lorry. 「You wish you were going yourself? And you
a Frenchman born? You are a wise counsellor.」
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「My dear Mr. Lorry, it is because I am a Frenchman born, that
the thought (which I did not mean to utter here, however) has
passed through my mind often. One cannot help thinking, having
had some sympathy for the miserable people, and having
abandoned something to them,」 he spoke here in his former
thoughtful manner, 「that one might be listened to, and might have
the power to persuade to some restraint. Only last night, after you
had left us, when I was talking to Lucie—」
「When you were talking to Lucie,」 Mr. Lorry repeated. 「Yes. I
wonder you are not ashamed to mention the name of Lucie!
Wishing you were going to France at this time of day!」
「However, I am not going,」 said Charles Darnay, with a smile.
「It is more to the purpose that you say you are.」
「And I am in plain reality. The truth is, my dear Charles,」 Mr.
Lorry glanced at the distant House, and lowered his voice, 「you
can have no conception of the difficulty with which our business is
transacted, and of the peril in which our books and papers over
yonder are involved. The Lord above knows what the
compromising consequences would be to numbers of people, if
some of our documents were seized or destroyed; and they might
be, at any time, you know, for who can say that Paris is not set afire today or sacked tomorrow! Now, a judicious selection from
these, with the least possible delay, and the burying of them, or
otherwise getting of them out of harm』s way is within the power
(without loss of precious time) of scarcely any one but myself, if
any one. And shall I hang back, when Tellson』s knows this and
says this—Tellson』s, whose bread I have eaten these sixty years—
because I am a little stiff about the joints? Why, I am a boy, sir, to
half a dozen old codgers here!」
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「How I admire the gallantry of your youthful spirit, Mr. Lorry.」
「Tut! Nonsense, sir!—And my dear Charles,」 said Mr. Lorry,
glancing at the House again, 「you are to remember, that getting
things out of Paris at this present time, no matter what things, is
next to an impossibility. Papers and precious matters were this
very day brought to us here (I speak in strict confidence; it is not
business-like to whisper it, even to you), by the strangest bearers
you can imagine, every one of whom had his head hanging on by a
single hair as he passed the Barriers. At another time, our parcels
would come and go, as easily as in business-like Old England; but
now, everything is stopped.」
「And do you really go tonight?」
「I really go tonight, for the case has become too pressing to
admit of delay.」
「And do you take no one with you?」
「All sorts of people have been proposed to me, but I will have
nothing to say to any of them. I intend to take Jerry. Jerry has
been my bodyguard on Sunday nights for a long time past, and I
am used to him. No body will suspect Jerry of being anything but
an English bulldog, or of having any design in his head but to fly at
anybody who touches his master.」
「I must say again that I heartily admire your gallantry and
youthfulness.」
「I must say again, nonsense, nonsense! When I have executed
this little commission, I shall, perhaps, accept Tellson』s proposal to
retire and live at my ease. Time enough, then, to think about
growing old.」
This dialogue had taken place at Mr. Lorry』s usual desk, with
Monseigneur swarming within a yard or two of it, boastful of what
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he would do to avenge himself on the rascal-people before long. It
was too much the way of Monseigneur under his reverses as a
refugee, and it was much too much the way of native British
orthodoxy, to talk of this terrible Revolution as if it were the one
only harvest ever known under the skies that had not been sown—
as if nothing had ever been done, or omitted to be done, that had
led to it—as if observers of the wretched millions in France, and of
the misused and perverted resources that should have made them
prosperous, had not seen it inevitably coming, years before, and
had not in plain words recorded what they saw. Such vapouring,
combined with the extravagant plots of Monseigneur for the
restoration of a state of things that had utterly exhausted itself,
and worn out heaven and earth as well as itself, was hard to be
endured without some remonstrance by any sane man who knew
the truth. And it was such vapouring all about his ears, like a
troublesome confusion of blood in his own head, added to a latent
uneasiness in his mind, which had already made Charles Darnay
restless, and which still kept him so.
Among the talkers, was Stryver, of the King』s Bench Bar, far on
his way to state promotion, and, therefore, loud on the theme:
broaching to Monseigneur, his devices for blowing the people up
and exterminating them from the face of the earth, and doing
without them: and for accomplishing many similar objects akin in
their nature to the abolition of eagles by sprinkling salt on the tails
of the race. Him, Darnay heard, with a particular feeling of
objection; and Darnay stood divided between going away that he
might hear no more, and remaining to interpose his word, when
the thing that was to be, went on to shape itself out.
The House approached Mr. Lorry, and laying a soiled and
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unopened letter before him, asked if he had yet discovered any
traces of the person to whom it was addressed? The House laid
the letter down so close to Darnay that he saw the direction—the
more quickly because it was his own right name. The address,
turned into English, ran:
「Very pressing. To Monsieur heretofore the Marquis St.
Evremonde, of France. Confided to the cares of Messrs. Tellson
and Co., Bankers, London, England.」
On the marriage morning, Dr. Manette had made it his one
urgent and express request to Charles Darnay, that the secret of
his name should be—unless he, the Doctor, dissolved the
obligation—kept inviolate between them. Nobody else knew it to
be his name; his own wife had no suspicion of the fact; Mr. Lorry
could have none.
「No,」 said Mr. Lorry, in reply to the House; 「I have referred it, I
think, to everybody now here, and no one can tell me where this
gentleman is to be found.」
The hands of the clock verging upon the hour of closing the
Bank, there was a general set of the current of talkers past Mr.
Lorry』s desk. He held the letter out inquiringly; and Monseigneur
looked at it, in the person of this plotting and indignant refugee;
and This, That, and The Other, all had something disparaging to
say, in French or in English, concerning the Marquis who was not
to be found.
「Nephew, I believe—but in any case degenerate successor—of
the polished Marquis who was murdered,」 said one. 「Happy to say
I never knew him.」
「A craven who abandoned his post,」 said another—this
Monseigneur had been got out of Paris, legs uppermost and half
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suffocated, in a load of hay—「some years ago.」
「Infected with the new doctrines,」 said a third, eyeing the
direction through his glass in passing; 「set himself in opposition to
the last Marquis, abandoned the estates when he inherited them,
and left them to the ruffian herd. They will recompense him now, I
hope, as he deserves.」
「Hey?」 cried the blatant Stryver. 「Did he though? Is that the
sort of fellow? Let us look at his infamous name. D—n the fellow!」
Darnay, unable to restrain himself any longer, touched Mr.
Stryver on the shoulder, and said:
「I know the fellow.」
「Do you, by Jupiter?」 said Stryver. 「I am sorry for it.」
「Why?」
「Why, Mr. Darnay? D』ye hear what he did? Don』t ask why, in
these times.」
「But I do ask why?」
「Then I tell you again, Mr. Darnay, I am sorry for it. I am sorry
to hear you putting any such extraordinary questions. Here is a
fellow who, infected by the most pestilent and blasphemous code
of devilry that ever was known, abandoned his property to the
vilest scum of the earth that ever did murder by wholesale, and
you ask me why I am sorry that a man who instructs youth knows
him? Well, but I』ll answer you. I am sorry because I believe there
is contamination in such a scoundrel. That』s why.」
Mindful of the secret, Darnay with great difficulty checked
himself, and said: 「You may not understand the gentleman.」
「I understand how to put you in a corner, Mr. Darnay,」 said
Bully Stryver, 「and I』ll do it. If this fellow is a gentleman, I don』t
understand him. You may tell him so, with my compliments. You
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may also tell him, from me, that after abandoning his worldly
goods and position to this butcherly mob, I wonder he is not at the
head of them. But, no, gentlemen,」 said Stryver, looking all round,
and snapping his fingers, 「I know something of human nature,
and I tell you that you』ll never find a fellow like this fellow,
trusting himself to the mercies of such precious proteges. No,
gentlemen; he』ll always show 』em a clean pair of heels very early in
the scuffle, and sneak away.」
With these words and a final snap of his fingers, Mr. Stryver
shouldered himself into Fleet Street, amidst the general
approbation of his hearers. Mr. Lorry and Charles Darnay were
left alone at the desk in the general departure from the Bank.
「Will you take charge of the letter?」 said Mr. Lorry. 「You know
where to deliver it?」
「I do.」
「Will you undertake to explain, that we suppose it to have been
addressed here, on the chance of our knowing where to forward it,
and that it has been here some time?」
「I will do so. Do you start for Paris from here?」
「From here, at eight.」
「I will come back to see you off.」
Very ill at ease with himself, and with Stryver and most other
men, Darnay made the best of his way into the quiet of the
Temple, opened the letter and read it. These were its contents:
「Prison of the Abbaye, Paris.
「June 21, 1792.
「After having long been in danger of my life at the hands of the
village, I have been seized, with great violence and indignity, and
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brought a long journey on foot to Paris. On the road I have
suffered a great deal. Nor is that all; my house has been
destroyed—razed to the ground.
「The crime for which I am imprisoned, Monsieur heretofore the
Marquis, and for which I shall be summoned before the tribunal,
and shall lose my life (without your so generous help), is, they tell
me, treason against the majesty of the people, in that I have acted
against them for an emigrant. It is in vain I represent that I have
acted for them, and not against, according to your commands. It is
in vain I represent that, before the sequestration of emigrant
property, I have remitted the imposts they have ceased to pay; that
I had collected no rent; that I had had recourse to no process. The
only response is, that I have acted for an emigrant, and where is
that emigrant?
「Ah! most gracious Monsieur heretofore the Marquis, where is
that emigrant? I cry in my sleep where is he? I demand of Heaven,
will he not come to deliver me? No answer. Ah Monsieur
heretofore the Marquis, I send my desolate cry across the sea,
hoping it may perhaps reach your ears through the great bank of
Tilson known at Paris!
「For the love of Heaven, of justice, of generosity, of the honour
of your noble name, I supplicate you, Monsieur heretofore the
Marquis, to succour and release me. My fault is, that I have been
true to you. Oh Monsieur heretofore the Marquis, I pray you be
you true to me!
「From this prison here of horror, whence I every hour tend
nearer and nearer to destruction, I send you, Monsieur heretofore
the Marquis, the assurance of my dolorous and unhappy service.
「Your afflicted, 「GABELLE」
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The latent uneasiness in Darnay』s mind was roused to vigorous
life by this letter. The peril of an old servant and a good one,
whose only crime was fidelity to himself and his family, stared him
so reproachfully in the face, that, as he walked to and fro in the
Temple considering what to do, he almost hid his face from the
passers-by.
He knew very well, that in his horror of the deed which had
culminated the bad deeds and bad reputation of the old family
house, in his resentful suspicions of his uncle, and in the aversion
with which his conscience regarded the crumbling fabric that he
was supposed to uphold, he had acted imperfectly. He knew very
well, that in his love for Lucie, his renunciation of his social place,
though by no means new to his own mind, had been hurried and
incomplete. He knew that he ought to have systematically worked
it out and supervised it, and that he had meant to do it, and that it
had never been done.
The happiness of his own chosen English home, the necessity of
being always actively employed, the swift changes and troubles of
the time which had followed on one another so fast, that the events
of this week annihilated the immature plans of last week, and the
events of the week following made all new again; he knew very
well, that to the force of these circumstances he had yielded:—not
without disquiet, but still without continuous and accumulating
resistance. That he had watched the times for a time of action, and
that they had shifted and struggled until the time had gone by, and
the nobility were trooping from France by every highway and
byway, and their property was in course of confiscation and
destruction, and their very names were blotting out, was as well
known to himself as it could be to any new authority in France
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that might impeach him for it.
But, he had oppressed no man, he had imprisoned no man; he
was so far from having harshly exacted payment of his dues, that
he had relinquished them of his own will, thrown himself on a
world with no favour in it, won his own private place there, and
earned his own bread. Monsieur Gabelle had held the
impoverished and involved estate on written instructions, to spare
the people, to give them what little there was to give—such fuel as
the heavy creditors would let them have in the winter, and such
produce as could be saved from the same grip in the summer—
and no doubt he had put the fact in plea and proof, for his own
safety, so that it could not but appear now.
This favoured the desperate resolution Charles Darnay had
begun to make, that he would go to Paris.
Yes. Like the mariner in the old story, the winds and streams
had driven him within the influence of the Loadstone Rock, and it
was drawing him to itself, and he must go. Everything that arose
before his mind drifted him on, faster and faster, more and more
steadily, to the terrible attraction. His latent uneasiness had been,
that bad aims were being worked out in his own unhappy land by
bad instruments, and that he who could not fail to know that he
was better than they, was not there, trying to do something to stay
bloodshed, and assert the claims of mercy and humanity. With this
uneasiness half stifled, and half reproaching him, he had been
brought to the pointed comparison of himself with the brave old
gentleman in whom duty was so strong; upon that comparison
(injurious to himself) had instantly followed the sneers of
Monseigneur, which had stung him bitterly, and those of Stryver,
which above all were coarse and galling, for old reasons. Upon
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those, had followed Gabelle』s letter: the appeal of an innocent
prisoner, in danger of death, to his justice, honour, and good
name.
His resolution was made. He must go to Paris.
Yes. The Loadstone Rock was drawing him, and he must sail
on, until he struck. He knew of no rock; he saw hardly any danger.
The intention with which he had done what he had done, even
although he had left it incomplete, presented it before him in an
aspect that would be gratefully acknowledged in France on his
presenting himself to assert it. Then, that glorious vision of doing
good, which is so often the sanguine mirage of so many good
minds, arose before him, and he even saw himself in the illusion
with some influence to guide this raging Revolution that was
running so fearfully wild.
As he walked to and fro with his resolution made, he considered
that neither Lucie nor her father must know of it until he was
gone. Lucie should be spared the pain of separation; and her
father, always reluctant to turn his thoughts toward the dangerous
ground of old, should come to the knowledge of the step, as a step
taken, and not in the balance of suspense and doubt. How much of
the incompleteness of his situation was referable to her father,
through the painful anxiety to avoid reviving old associations of
France in his mind, he did not discuss with himself. But, that
circumstance, too, had had its influence in his course.
He walked to and fro, with thoughts very busy, until it was time
to return to Tellson』s and take leave of Mr. Lorry. As soon as he
arrived in Paris he would present himself to this old friend, but he
must say nothing of his intention now.
A carriage with post-horses was ready at the Bank door, and
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Jerry was booted and equipped.
「I have delivered that letter,」 said Charles Darnay to Mr. Lorry.
「I would not consent to your being charged with any written
answer, but perhaps you will take a verbal one?」
「That I will, and readily,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「if it is not
dangerous.」
「Not at all. Though it is to a prisoner in the Abbaye.」
「What is his name?」 said Mr. Lorry, with his open pocketbook
in his hand.
「Gabelle.」
「Gabelle. And what is the message to the unfortunate Gabelle
in prison?」
「Simply, 『that he has received the letter, and will come.』」
「Any time mentioned?」
「He will start upon his journey tomorrow night.」
「Any person mentioned?」
「No.」
He helped Mr. Lorry to wrap himself in a number of coats and
cloaks, and went out with him from the warm atmosphere of the
old Bank, into the misty air of Fleet Street. 「My love to Lucie, and
to little Lucie,」 said Mr. Lorry at parting, 「and take precious care
of them till I come back.」 Charles Darnay shook his head and
doubtfully smiled, as the carriage rolled away.
That night—it was the fourteenth of August—he sat up late,
and wrote two fervent letters; one was to Lucie, explaining the
strong obligation he was under to go to Paris, and showing her, at
length, the reasons that he had, for feeling confident that he could
become involved in no personal danger there; the other was to the
Doctor, confiding Lucie and their dear child to his care, and
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dwelling on the same topics with the strongest assurances. To
both, he wrote that he would despatch letters in proof of his safety,
immediately after his arrival. It was a hard day, that day of being
among them, with the first reservation of their joint lives on his
mind. It was a hard matter to preserve the innocent deceit of
which they were profoundly unsuspicious. But, an affectionate
glance at his wife, so happy and busy, made him resolute not to tell
her what impended (he had been half moved to do it, so strange it
was to him to act in anything without her quiet aid), and the day
passed quickly. Early in the evening he embraced her, and her
scarcely less dear namesake, pretending that he would return by-
and-by (an imaginary engagement took him out, and he had
secreted a valise of clothes ready), and so he emerged into the
heavy mist of the heavy streets, with a heavier heart.
The unseen force was drawing him fast to itself, now, and all
the tides and winds were setting straight and strong towards it. He
left his two letters with a trusty porter, to be delivered half an hour
before midnight, and no sooner; took horse for Dover; and began
his journey. 『For the love of Heaven, of justice, of generosity, of the
honour of your noble name!』 was the poor prisoner』s cry with
which he strengthened his sinking heart, as he left all that was
dear on earth behind him, and floated away for the Loadstone
Rock.
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BOOK THE
THIRD
THE TRACK OF A
STORM
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Chapter XXXI
IN SECRET
T he traveller fared slowly on his way, who fared towards
Paris from England in the autumn of the year one
thousand seven hundred and ninety-two. More than
enough of bad roads, bad equipages, and bad horses, he would
have encountered to delay him, though the fallen and unfortunate
King of France had been upon his throne in all his glory; but, the
changed times were fraught with other obstacles than these. Every
town-gate and village taxing-house had its band of citizen-patriots,
with their national muskets in a most explosive state of readiness,
who stopped all comers and goers, cross-questioned them,
inspected their papers, looked for their names in lists of their own,
turned them back, or sent them on, or stopped them and laid them
in hold, as their capricious judgment or fancy deemed best for the
dawning Republic One and Indivisible, of Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity, or Death.
A very few French leagues of his journey were accomplished,
when Charles Darnay began to perceive that for him along these
country roads there was no hope of return until he should have
been declared a good citizen at Paris. Whatever might befall now,
he must on to his journey』s end. Not a mean village closed upon
him, not a common barrier dropped across the road behind him,
but he knew it to be another iron door in the series that was
barred between him and England. The universal watchfulness so
encompassed him, that if he had been taken in a net, or were
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being forwarded to his destination in a cage, he could not have felt
his freedom more completely gone.
This universal watchfulness not only stopped him on the
highway twenty times in a stage, but retarded his progress twenty
times in a day, by riding after him and taking him back, riding
before him and stopping him by anticipation, riding with him and
keeping him in charge. He had been days upon his journey in
France alone, when he went to bed tired out, in a little town on the
high road, still a long way from Paris.
Nothing but the production of the afflicted Gabelle』s letter from
his prison of the Abbaye would have got him on so far. His
difficulty at the guardhouse in this small place had been such, that
he felt his journey to have come to a crisis. And he was, therefore,
as little surprised as a man could be, to find himself awakened at
the small inn to which he had been remitted until morning, in the
middle of the night.
Awakened by a timid local functionary and three armed
patriots in rough red caps and with pipes in their mouths, who sat
down on the bed.
「Emigrant,」 said the functionary, 「I am going to send you on to
Paris, under an escort.」
「Citizen, I desire nothing more than to get to Paris, though I
could dispense with the escort.」
「Silence!」 growled a red-cap, striking at the coverlet with the
butt-end of his musket. 「Peace, aristocrat!」
「It is as the good patriot says,」 observed the timid functionary.
「You are an aristocrat, and must have an escort—and must pay for
it.」
「I have no choice,」 said Charles Darnay.
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「Choice! Listen to him!」 cried the same scowling red-cap. 「As if
it was not a favour to be protected from the lamp-iron!」
「It is always as the good patriot says,」 observed the functionary.
「Rise and dress yourself, emigrant.」
Darnay complied, and was taken back to the guardhouse,
where other patriots in rough red caps were smoking, drinking,
and sleeping, by a watch-fire. Here he paid a heavy price for his
escort, and hence he started with it on the wet, wet roads at three
o』clock in the morning.
The escort were two mounted patriots in red caps and
tricoloured cockades, armed with national muskets and sabres,
who rode one on either side of him. The escorted governed his
own horse, but a loose line was attached to his bridle, the end of
which one of the patriots kept girded round his wrist. In this state
they set forth with the sharp rain driving in their faces: clattering
at a heavy dragoon trot over the uneven town pavement, and out
upon the mire-deep roads. In this state they traversed without
change, except of horses and pace, all the mire-deep leagues that
lay between them and the capital.
They travelled in the night, halting an hour or two after
daybreak, and lying by until the twilight fell. The escort were so
wretchedly clothed, that they twisted straw round their bare legs,
and thatched their ragged shoulders to keep the wet off. Apart
from the personal discomfort of being so attended, and apart from
such considerations of present danger as arose from one of the
patriots being chronically drunk, and carrying his musket very
recklessly, Charles Darnay did not allow the restraint that was laid
upon him to awaken any serious fears in his breast; for, he
reasoned with himself that it could have no reference to the merits
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of an individual case that was not yet stated, and of
representations, confirmable by the prisoner in the Abbaye, that
were not yet made.
But when they came to the town of Beauvais—which they did
at eventide, when the streets were filled with people—he could not
conceal from himself that the aspect of affairs was very alarming.
An ominous crowd gathered to see him dismount at the posting
yard, and many voices called out loudly, 「Down with the
emigrant!」
He stopped in the act of swinging himself out of his saddle, and,
resuming it as his safest place, said:
「Emigrant, my friends! Do you not see me here, in France, of
my own will?」
「You are a cursed emigrant,」 cried a farrier, making at him in a
furious manner through the press, hammer in hand; 「and you are
a cursed aristocrat!」
The postmaster interposed himself between this man and the
rider』s bridle (at which he was evidently making), and soothingly
said, 「Let him be; let him be! He will be judged at Paris.」
「Judged!」 repeated the farrier, swinging his hammer. 「Ay! and
condemned as a traitor.」 At this the crowd roared approval.
Checking the postmaster, who was for turning his horse』s head
to the yard (the drunken patriot sat composedly in his saddle
looking on, with the line round his wrist), Darnay said, as soon as
he could make his voice heard:
「Friends, you deceive yourselves, or you are deceived. I am not
a traitor.」
「He lies!」 cried the smith. 「He is a traitor since the decree. His
life is forfeit to the people. His cursed life is not his own!」
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At that instant when Darnay saw a rush in the eyes of the
crowd, which another instant would have brought upon him, the
postmaster turned his horse into the yard, the escort rode in close
upon his horse』s flanks, and the postmaster shut and barred the
crazy double gates. The farrier struck a blow upon them with his
hammer, and the crowd groaned; but no more was done.
「What is this decree that the smith spoke of?」 Darnay asked the
postmaster, when he had thanked him, and stood beside him in
the yard.
「Truly, a decree for selling the property of emigrants.」
「When passed?」
「On the fourteenth.」
「The day I left England!」
「Everybody says it is but one of several, and that there will be
others—if there are not already—banishing all emigrants, and
condemning all to death who return. That is what he meant when
he said your life was not your own.」
「But there are no such decrees yet?」
「What do I know!」 said the postmaster, shrugging his
shoulders; 「there may be, or there will be. It is all the same. What
would you have?」
They rested on some straw in a loft until the middle of the
night, and then rode forward again when all the town was asleep.
Among the many wild changes observable on familiar things
which made this wild ride unreal, not the least was the seeming
rarity of sleep. After long and lonely spurring over dreary roads,
they would come to a cluster of poor cottages, not steeped in
darkness, but all glittering with lights, and would find the people,
in a ghostly manner in the dead of the night, circling hand in hand
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round a shrivelled tree of Liberty, or all drawn up together singing
a Liberty song. Happily, however, there was sleep in Beauvais that
night to help them out of it, and they passed on once more into
solitude and loneliness: jingling through the untimely cold and
wet, among impoverished fields that had yielded no fruits of the
earth that year, diversified by the blackened remains of burnt
houses, and by the sudden emergence from ambuscade, and sharp
reining up across their way, of patriot patrols on the watch on all
the roads.
Daylight at last found them before the wall of Paris. The barrier
was closed and strongly guarded when they rode up to it.
「Where are the papers of this prisoner?」 demanded a resolute-
looking man in authority, who was summoned out by the guard.
Naturally struck by the disagreeable word, Charles Darnay
requested the speaker to take notice that he was a free traveller
and French citizen, in charge of an escort which the disturbed
state of the country had imposed upon him, and which he had paid
for.
「Where,」 repeated the same personage, without taking any
heed of him whatever, 「are the papers of this prisoner?」
The drunken patriot had them in his cap, and produced them.
Casting his eyes over Gabelle』s letter, the same personage in
authority showed some disorder and surprise and looked at
Darnay with a close attention.
He left escort and escorted without saying a word, however,
and went into the guard-room; meanwhile they sat upon their
horses outside the gate. Looking about him while in this state of
suspense, Charles Darnay observed that the gate was held by a
mixed guard of soldiers and patriots, the latter far outnumbering
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the former; and that while ingress into the city for peasants』 carts
bringing in supplies, and for similar traffic and traffickers, was
easy enough, egress, even for the homeliest people, was very
difficult. A numerous medley of men and women, not to mention
beasts and vehicles of various sorts, was waiting to issue forth; but
the previous identification was so strict, that they filtered through
the barrier very slowly. Some of these people knew their turn for
examination to be so far off, that they lay down on the ground to
sleep or smoke, while others talked together, or loitered about.
The red cap and tricolour cockade were universal, both among
men and women.
When he had sat in his saddle some half-hour, taking note of
these things, Darnay found himself confronted by the same man in
authority, who directed the guard to open the barrier. Then he
delivered to the escort, drunk and sober, a receipt for the escorted
and requested him to dismount. He did so, and the two patriots,
leading his tired horse, turned and rode away without entering the
city.
He accompanied his conductor into a guard-room, smelling of
common wine and tobacco, where certain soldiers and patriots,
asleep and awake, drunk and sober, and in various neutral states
between sleeping and waking, drunkenness and sobriety, were
standing and lying about. The light in the guardhouse, half
derived from the waning oil lamps of the night, and half from the
overcast day, was in a correspondingly uncertain condition. Some
registers were lying open on a desk, and an officer of a coarse,
dark aspect, presided over these.
「Citizen Defarge,」 said he to Darnay』s conductor, as he took a
slip of paper to write on. 「Is this the emigrant Evremonde?」
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「This is the man.」
「Your age, Evremonde?」
「Thirty-seven.」
「Married, Evremonde?」
「Yes.」
「Where married?」
「In England.」
「Without doubt. Where is your wife, Evremonde?」
「In England.」
「Without doubt. You are consigned, Evremonde, to the prison
of La Force.」
「Just Heaven!」 exclaimed Darnay. 「Under what law, and for
what offence?」
The officer looked up from his slip of paper for a moment.
「We have new laws, Evremonde, and new offences, since you
were here.」 He said it with a hard smile, and went on writing.
「I entreat you to observe that I have come here voluntarily, in
response to that written appeal of a fellow countryman which lies
before you. I demand no more than the opportunity to do so
without delay. Is not that my right?」
「Emigrants have no rights, Evremonde,」 was the stolid reply.
The officer wrote until he had finished, read over to himself what
he had written, sanded it, and handed it to Defarge, with the
words, 「In secret.」
Defarge motioned with the paper to the prisoner that he must
accompany him. The prisoner obeyed, and a guard of two armed
patriots attended them.
「Is it you,」 said Defarge, in a low voice, as they went down the
guardhouse steps and turned into Paris, 「who married the
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daughter of Doctor Manette, once a prisoner in the Bastille that is
no more?」
「Yes,」 replied Darnay, looking at him with surprise.
「My name is Defarge, and I keep a wine-shop in the Quarter
Saint Antoine. Possibly you have heard of me.」
「My wife came to your house to reclaim her father? Yes!」
The word 『wife』 seemed to serve as a gloomy reminder to
Defarge, to say with sudden impatience, 「In the name of that
sharp female newly-born, and called La Guillotine, why did you
come to France?」
「You heard me say why, a minute ago. Do you not believe it is
the truth?」
「A bad truth for you,」 said Defarge, speaking with knitted
brows, and looking straight before him.
「Indeed I am lost here. All here is so unprecedented, so
changed, so sudden and unfair, that I am absolutely lost. Will you
render me a little help?」
「None.」 Defarge spoke, always looking straight before him.
「Will you answer me a single question?」
「Perhaps. According to its nature. You can say what it is.」
「In this prison that I am going to so unjustly, shall I have some
free communication with the world outside?」
「You will see.」
「I am not to be buried there, prejudiced, and without any
means of presenting my case?」
「You will see. But, what then? Other people have been
similarly buried in worse prisons, before now.」
「But never by me, Citizen Defarge.」
Defarge glanced darkly at him for answer, and walked on in a
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steady and set silence. The deeper he sank into this silence, the
fainter hope there was—or so Darnay thought—of his softening in
any slight degree. He, therefore, made haste to say:
「It is of the utmost importance to me (you know, Citizen, even
better than I do, of how much importance), that I should be able to
communicate to Mr. Lorry of Tellson』s Bank, an English
gentleman who is now in Paris, the simple fact without comment,
that I have been thrown into the prison of La Force. Will you
cause that to be done for me?」
「I will do,」 Defarge doggedly rejoined, 「nothing for you. My
duty is to my country and the People. I am the sworn servant of
both, against you. I will do nothing for you.」
Charles Darnay felt it hopeless to entreat him further, and his
pride was touched besides. As they walked on in silence, he could
not but see how used the people were to the spectacle of prisoners
passing along the streets. The very children scarcely noticed him.
A few passers turned their heads, and a few shook their fingers at
him as an aristocrat; otherwise that a man in good clothes should
be going to prison, was no more remarkable than that a labourer
in working clothes should be going to work. In one narrow, dark,
and dirty street through which they passed, an excited orator,
mounted on a stool, was addressing an excited audience on the
crimes against the people, of the king and the royal family. The
few words that he caught from this man』s lips, first made it known
to Charles Darnay that the king was in prison, and that the foreign
ambassadors had one and all left Paris. On the road (except at
Beauvais) he had heard absolutely nothing. The escort and the
universal watchfulness had completely isolated him.
That he had fallen among far greater dangers than those which
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had developed themselves when he left England, he of course
knew now. That perils had thickened about him fast, and might
thicken faster and faster yet, he of course knew now. He could not
but admit to himself that he might not have made this journey, if
he could have foreseen the events of a few days. And yet his
misgivings were not so dark as, imagined by the light of this later
time, they would appear. Troubled as the future was, it was the
unknown future, and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope. The
horrible massacre, days and nights long, which, within a few
rounds of the clock, was to set a great mark of blood upon the
blessed garnering time of harvest, was as far out of his knowledge
as if it had been a hundred thousand years away. The 『sharp
female newly-born, and called La Guillotine,』 was hardly known to
him, or to the generality of people, by name. The frightful deeds
that were to be soon done, were probably unimagined at that time
in the brains of the doers. How could they have a place in the
shadowy conceptions of a gentle mind?
Of unjust treatment in detention and hardship, and in cruel
separation from his wife and child, he foreshadowed the
likelihood, or the certainty; but, beyond this, he dreaded nothing
distinctly. With this on his mind, which was enough to carry him
into a dreary prison courtyard, he arrived at the prison of La
Force.
A man with a bloated face opened the strong wicket, to whom
Defarge presented 「The Emigrant Evremonde.」
「What the Devil! How many more of them!」 exclaimed the man
with the bloated face.
Defarge took his receipt without noticing the exclamation, and
withdrew, with his two fellow-patriots.
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「What the Devil, I say again!」 exclaimed the gaoler, left with his
wife. 「How many more!」
The gaoler』s wife, being provided with no answer to the
question, merely replied, 「One must have patience, my dear!」
Three turnkeys who entered responsive to a bell she rang, echoed
the sentiment, and one added, 「For the love of Liberty」; which
sounded in that place like an inappropriate conclusion.
The prison of La Force was a gloomy prison, dark and filthy,
and with a horrible smell of foul sleep in it. Extraordinary how
soon the noisome flavour of imprisoned sleep, becomes manifest
in all such places that are ill cared for!
「In secret, too,」 grumbled the gaoler, looking at the written
paper. 「As if I was not already full to bursting!」
He stuck the paper on a file, in an ill-humour, and Charles
Darnay awaited his further pleasure for half an hour: sometimes,
pacing to and fro in the strong arched room: sometimes, resting on
a stone seat: in either case detained to be imprinted on the
memory of the chief and his subordinates.
「Come!」 said the chief, at length taking up his keys, 「come with
me, Emigrant.」
Through the dismal prison twilight, his new charge
accompanied him by corridor and staircase, many doors clanging
and locking behind them, until they came into a large, low, vaulted
chamber, crowded with prisoners of both sexes. The women were
seated at a long table, reading and writing, knitting, sewing, and
embroidering; the men were for the most part standing behind
their chairs, or lingering up and down the room.
In the instinctive association of prisoners with shameful crime
and disgrace, the newcomer recoiled from this company. But the
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crowning unreality of his long unreal ride, was, their all at once
rising to receive him, with every refinement of manner known to
the time, and with all the engaging graces and courtesies of life.
So strangely clouded were these refinements by the prison
manners and gloom, so spectral did they become in the
inappropriate squalor and misery through which they were seen,
that Charles Darnay seemed to stand in company of the dead.
Ghosts all! The ghost of beauty, the ghost of stateliness, the ghost
of elegance, the ghost of pride, the ghost of frivolity, the ghost of
wit, the ghost of youth, the ghost of age, all waiting their dismissal
from the desolate shore, all turning on him eyes that were changed
by the death they had died in coming there.
It struck him motionless. The gaoler standing at his side, and
the other gaolers moving about, who would have been well enough
as to appearance in the ordinary exercise of their functions, looked
so extravagantly coarse contrasted with sorrowing mothers and
blooming daughters who were there—with the apparitions of the
coquette, the young beauty, and the mature woman delicately
bred—that the inversion of all experience and likelihood which the
scene of shadows presented, was heightened to its utmost. Surely,
ghosts all. Surely, the long unreal ride some progress of disease
that had brought him to these gloomy shades!
「In the name of the assembled companions in misfortune,」 said
a gentleman of courtly appearance and address, coming forward,
「I have the honour of giving you welcome to La Force, and of
condoling with you on the calamity that has brought you among
us. May it soon terminate happily! It would be an impertinence
elsewhere, but it is not so here, to ask your name and condition?」
Charles Darnay roused himself, and gave the required
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information, in words as suitable as he could find.
「But I hope,」 said the gentleman, following the chief gaoler
with his eyes, who moved across the room, 「that you are not in
secret?」
「I do not understand the meaning of the term, but I have heard
them say so.」
「Ah, what a pity! We so much regret it! But take courage;
several members of our society have been in secret, at first, and it
has lasted but a short time.」 Then he added, raising his voice, 「I
grieve to inform the society—in secret.」
There was a murmur of commiseration as Charles Darnay
crossed the room to a grated door where the gaoler awaited him,
and many voices—among which, the soft and compassionate
voices of women were conspicuous—gave him good wishes and
encouragement. He turned at the grated door, to render the
thanks of his heart; it closed under the gaoler』s hand; and the
apparitions vanished from his sight for ever.
The wicket opened on a stone staircase, leading upward. When
they had ascended forty steps (the prisoner of half an hour already
counted them), the gaoler opened a low black door, and they
passed into a solitary cell. It struck cold and damp, but was not
dark.
「Yours,」 said the gaoler.
「Why am I confined alone?」
「How do I know!」
「I can buy pen, ink, and paper?」
「Such are not my orders. You will be visited, and can ask then.
At present, you may buy your food, and nothing more.」
There were in the cell, a chair, a table, and a straw mattress. As
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the gaoler made a general inspection of these objects, and of the
four walls, before going out, a wandering fancy wandered through
the mind of the prisoner leaning against the wall opposite to him,
that this gaoler was so unwholesomely bloated, both in face and
person, as to look like a man who had been drowned and filled
with water. When the gaoler was gone, he thought in the same
wandering way, 「Now am I left, as if I were dead.」 Stopping then,
to look down at the mattress, he turned from it with a sick feeling,
and thought, 「And here in these crawling creatures is the first
condition of the body after death.」
「Five paces by four and a half, five paces by four and a half, five
paces by four and a half.」 The prisoner walked to and fro in his
cell, counting its measurements, and the roar of the city arose like
muffled drums with a wild swell of voices added to them. 「He
made shoes, he made shoes, he made shoes.」 The prisoner
counted the measurement again, and paced faster, to draw his
mind with him from that latter repetition. 「The ghosts that
vanished when the wicket closed. There was one among them, the
appearance of a lady dressed in black, who was leaning in the
embrasure of a window, and she had a light shining upon her
golden hair, and she looked like... Let us ride on again, for God』s
sake, through the illuminated villages with the people all awake!...
He made shoes, he made shoes, he made shoes.... Five paces by
four and a half.」 With such scraps tossing and rolling upward from
the depths of his mind, the prisoner walked faster and faster,
obstinately counting and counting; and the roar of the city
changed to this extent—that it still rolled in like muffled drums,
but with the wail of voices that he knew, in the swell that rose
above them.
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Chapter XXXII
THE GRINDSTONE
Tellson』s Bank, established in the Saint Germain Quarter of
Paris, was in a wing of a large house, approached by a
court-yard and shut off from the street by a high wall and
a strong gate. The house belonged to a great nobleman who had
lived in it until he made a flight from the troubles, in his own
cook』s dress, and got across the borders. A mere beast of the chase
flying from hunters, he was still in his metempsychosis no other
than the same Monseigneur, the preparation of whose chocolate
for whose lips had once occupied three strong men besides the
cook in question.
Monseigneur gone, and the three strong men absolving
themselves from the sin of having drawn his high wages, by being
more than ready and willing to cut his throat on the altar of the
drawing Republic One and Indivisible, of Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity, or Death, Monseigneur』s house had been first
sequestrated, and then confiscated. For, all things move so fast,
and decree following decree with that fierce precipitation, that
now upon the third night of the autumn month of September,
patriot emissaries of the law were in possession of Monseigneur』s
house, and had marked it with the tricolour, and were drinking
brandy in its state apartments.
A place of business in London like Tellson』s place of business in
Paris, would soon have driven the House out of its mind and into
the Gazette. For, what would staid British responsibility and
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respectability have said to orange-trees in boxes in a Bank courtyard, and even to a Cupid over the counter? Yet such things were.
Tellson』s had whitewashed the Cupid, but he was still to be seen
on the ceiling, in the coolest linen, aiming (as he very often does)
at money from morning to night. Bankruptcy must inevitably have
come of this young Pagan, in Lombard-street, London, and also of
a curtained alcove in the rear of the immortal boy, and also of a
looking-glass let into the wall, and also of clerks not at all old, who
danced in public on the slightest provocation. Yet, a French
Tellson』s could get on with these things exceedingly well, and, as
long as the times held together, no man had taken fright at them,
and drawn out his money.
What money would be drawn out of Tellson』s henceforth, and
what would lie there, lost and forgotten; what plate and jewels
would tarnish in Tellson』s hiding-places, while the depositors
rusted in prisons, and when they should have violently perished;
how many accounts with Tellson』s never to be balanced in this
world, must be carried over into the next; no man could have said,
that night, any more than Mr. Jarvis Lorry could, though he
thought heavily of these questions. He sat by a newly-lighted wood
fire (the blighted and unfruitful year was prematurely cold), and
on his honest and courageous face there was a deeper shade than
the pendent lamp could throw, or any object in the room
distortedly reflect—a shade of horror.
He occupied rooms in the Bank, in his fidelity to the House of
which he had grown to be a part, like strong root-ivy. It chanced
that they derived a kind of security from the patriotic occupation
of the main building, but the true-hearted old gentleman never
calculated about that. All such circumstances were indifferent to
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him, so that he did his duty. On the opposite side of the courtyard,
under a colonnade, was extensive standing for carriages—where,
indeed, some carriages of Monseigneur yet stood. Against two of
the pillars were fastened two great flaring flambeaux, and in the
light of these, standing to in the open air, was a large grindstone: a
roughly mounted thing which appeared to have hurriedly been
brought there from some neighbouring smithy, or other workshop.
Rising and looking out of the window at these harmless objects,
Mr. Lorry shivered, and retired to his seat by the fire. He had
opened, not only the glass window, but the lattice blind outside it,
and he had closed both again, and he shivered through his frame.
From the streets beyond the high wall and the strong gate,
there came the usual night hum of the city, with now and then an
indescribable ring in it, weird and unearthly, as if some unwonted
sounds of a terrible nature were going up to Heaven.
「Thank God,」 said Mr. Lorry, clasping his hands, 「that no one
near and dear to me is in this dreadful town tonight. May He have
mercy on all who are in danger!」
Soon afterwards the bell at the great gate sounded, and he
thought, 「They have come back!」 and sat listening. But, there was
no loud irruption into the courtyard, as he had expected, and he
heard the gate clash again, and all was quiet.
The nervousness and dread that were upon him inspired that
vague uneasiness respecting the Bank, which a great change
would naturally awaken, with such feelings roused. It was well
guarded, and he got up to go among the trusty people watching it,
when his door suddenly opened, and two figures rushed in, at
sight of which he fell back in amazement.
Lucie and her father! Lucie with her arms stretched out to him,
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and with that old look of earnestness so concentrated and
intensified, that it seemed as though it had been stamped upon her
face expressly to give force and power to it in this one passage of
her life.
「What is this?」 cried Mr. Lorry, breathless and confused.
「What is the matter? Lucie! Manette! What has happened? What
has brought you here? What is it?」
With the look fixed upon him, in her paleness and wildness, she
panted out in his arms, imploringly, 「O my dear friend! My
husband!」
「Your husband, Lucie?」
「Charles.」
「What of Charles?」
「Here.」
「Here, in Paris?」
「Has been here some days—three or four—I don』t know how
many—I can』t collect my thoughts. An errand of generosity
brought him here unknown to us; he was stopped at the barrier,
and sent to prison.」
The old man uttered an irrepressible cry. Almost at the same
moment, the bell of the great gate rang again, and a loud noise of
feet and voices came pouring into the court-yard.
「What is that noise?」 said the Doctor, turning towards the
window.
「Don』t look!」 cried Mr. Lorry. 「Don』t look out! Manette, for
your life, don』t touch the blind!」
The Doctor turned, with his hand upon the fastening of the
window, and said, with a cool, bold smile:
「My dear friend, I have a charmed life in this city. I have been a
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Bastille prisoner. There is no patriot in Paris—in Paris? In
France—who, knowing me to have been a prisoner in the Bastille,
would touch me, except to overwhelm me with embraces, or carry
me in triumph. My old pain has given me a power that has brought
us through the barrier, and gained us news of Charles there, and
brought us here. I knew it would be so; I knew I could help
Charles out of all danger; I told Lucie so.—What is that noise?」
His hand was again upon the window.
「Don』t look!」 cried Mr. Lorry, absolutely desperate. 「No, Lucie,
my dear, nor you!」 He got his arm around her, and held her.
「Don』t be so terrified, my love. I solemnly swear to you that I know
of no harm having happened to Charles; that I had no suspicion
even of his being in this fatal place. What prison is he in?」
「La Force!」
「La Force! Lucie, my child, if ever you were brave and
serviceable in your life—and you were always both—you will
compose yourself now, to do exactly as I bid you; for more
depends upon it than you can think, or I can say. There is no help
for you in any action on your part tonight; you cannot possibly stir
out. I say this, because what I must bid you to do for Charles』s
sake, is the hardest thing to do of all. You must instantly be
obedient, still and quiet. You must let me put you in a room at the
back here. You must leave your father and me alone for two
minutes, and as there are Life and Death in the world you must
not delay.」
「I will be submissive to you. I see in your face that you know I
can do nothing else than this. I know you are true.」
The old man kissed her, and hurried her into his room, and
turned the key; then came hurrying back to the Doctor, and
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opened the window and partly opened the blind, and put his hand
upon the Doctor』s arm, and looked out with him into the courtyard.
Looked out upon a throng of men and women: not enough in
number, or near enough, to fill the courtyard: not more than forty
or fifty in all. The people in possession of the house had let them in
at the gate, and they rushed in to work at the grindstone; it had
evidently been set up there for their purpose, as in a convenient
and retired spot.
But such awful workers, and such awful work!
The grindstone had a double handle, and turning at it madly
were two men, whose faces, as their long hair flapped back when
the whirlings of the grindstone brought their faces up, were more
horrible and cruel than the visages of the wildest savages in their
most barbarous disguise. False eyebrows and false moustaches
were stuck upon them, and their hideous countenances were all
bloody and sweaty, and all awry with howling, and all staring and
glaring with beastly excitement and want of sleep. As these
ruffians turned and turned, their matted locks now flung forward
over their eyes, now flung backward over their necks, some
women held wine to their mouths that they might drink; and what
with dropping blood, and what with dropping wine, and what with
the stream of sparks struck out of the stone, all their wicked
atmosphere seemed gore and fire. The eye could not detect one
creature in the group free from the smear of blood. Shouldering
one another to get next at the sharpening-stone, the men stripped
to the waist, with the stain all over their limbs and bodies; men in
all sorts of rags, with the stain upon those rags; men devilishly set
off with spoils of women』s lace and silk and ribbon, with the stain
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dyeing those trifles through and through. Hatchets, knives,
bayonets, swords, all brought to be sharpened, were all red with it.
Some of the hacked swords were tied to the wrist of those who
carried them, with strips of linen and fragments of dress: ligatures
various in kind, but all deep of the one colour. And as the frantic
wielders of these weapons snatched them from the stream of
sparks and tore away into the streets, the same red hue was red in
their frenzied eyes;—eyes which any unbrutalised beholder would
have given twenty years of life, to petrify with a well directed gun.
All this was seen in a moment, as the vision of a drowning man,
or of any human creature at any very great pass, could see a world
if it were there. They drew back from the window, and the Doctor
looked for explanation in his friend』s ashy face.
「They are,」 Mr. Lorry whispered the words, glancing fearfully
around at the locked room, 「murdering the prisoners. If you are
sure of what you say; if you really have the power you think you
have—as I believe you have—make yourself known to these devils,
and get taken to La Force. It may be too late, I don』t know, but let
it not be a minute later!」
Doctor Manette pressed his hand, hastened bareheaded out of
the room, and was in the court-yard when Mr. Lorry regained the
blind.
His streaming white hair, his remarkable face, and the
impetuous confidence of his manner, as he put the weapons aside
like water, carried him in an instant to the heart of the concourse
at the stone. For a few minutes there was a pause, and a hurry,
and a murmur, and the unintelligible sound of his voice; and then
Mr. Lorry saw him, surrounded by all, and in the midst of a line of
twenty men long, all linked shoulder to shoulder, and hand to
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shoulder, hurried out with cries—「Live the Bastille prisoner! Help
for the Bastille prisoner』s kindred in La Force! Room for the
Bastille prisoner in front there! Save the prisoner Evremonde at
La Force!」 and a thousand answering shouts.
He closed the lattice again with a fluttering heart, closed the
window and the curtain, hastened to Lucie, and told her that her
father was assisted by the people, and gone in search of her
husband. He found her child and Miss Pross with her; but, it never
occurred to him to be surprised by their appearance until a long
time afterwards, when he sat watching them in such quiet as the
night knew.
Lucie had, by that time, fallen into a stupor on the floor at his
feet, clinging to his hand. Miss Pross had laid the child down on
his own bed, and her head had gradually fallen on the pillow
beside her pretty charge. O the long, long night, with the moans of
the poor wife! And O the long, long night, with no return of her
father and no tidings!
Twice more in the darkness the bell at the great gate sounded,
and the irruption was repeated, and the grindstone whirled and
spluttered. 「What is it?」 cried Lucie, affrighted. 「Hush! The
soldiers』 swords are sharpened there,」 said Mr. Lorry. 「The place
is national property now, and used as a kind of armoury, my love.」
Twice more in all; but, the last spell of work was feeble and
fitful. Soon afterwards the day began to dawn, and he softly
detached himself from the clasping hand, and cautiously looked
out again. A man, so besmeared that he might have been a sorely
wounded soldier creeping back to consciousness on a field of slain,
was rising from the pavement by the side of the grindstone, and
looking about him with a vacant air. Shortly, this worn-out
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murderer descried in the imperfect light one of the carriages of
Monseigneur, and, staggering to that gorgeous vehicle, climbed in
at the door, and shut himself up to take his rest on its dainty
cushions.
The great grindstone, Earth, had turned when Mr. Lorry looked
out again, and the sun was red on the courtyard. But, the lesser
grindstone stood alone there in the calm morning air, with a red
upon it that the sun had never given, and would never take away.
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Chapter XXXIII
THE SHADOW
O ne of the first considerations which arose in the business
mind of Mr. Lorry when business hours came round, was
this:—that he had no right to imperil Tellson』s by
sheltering the wife of an emigrant prisoner under the Bank roof.
His own possessions, safety, life, he would have hazarded for Lucie
and her child, without a moment』s demur; but the great trust he
held was not his own, and as to that business charge he was a
strict man of business.
At first, his mind reverted to Defarge, and he thought of finding
out the wine-shop again and taking counsel with its master in
reference to the safest dwelling-place in the distracted state of the
city. But, the same consideration that suggested him, repudiated
him; he lived in the most violent Quarter, and doubtless was
influential there, and deep in its dangerous workings.
Noon coming, and the Doctor not returning, and every minute』s
delay tending to compromise Tellson』s, Mr. Lorry advised with
Lucie. She said that her father had spoken of hiring a lodging for a
short term, in that Quarter, near the Banking-house. As there was
no business objection to this, and as he foresaw that even if it were
all well with Charles, and he were to be released, he could not
hope to leave the city, Mr. Lorry went out in quest of such a
lodging, and found a suitable one, high up in a removed by-street
where the closed blinds in all the other windows of a high
melancholy square of buildings marked deserted homes.
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To this lodging he at once removed Lucie and her child, and
Miss Pross; giving them what comfort he could, and much more
than he had himself. He left Jerry with them, as a figure to fill a
doorway that would bear considerable knocking on the head, and
returned to his own occupations. A disturbed and doleful mind he
brought to bear upon them; and slowly and heavily, the day lagged
on with him.
It wore itself out, and wore him out with it, until the Bank
closed. He was again alone in his room of the previous night,
considering what to do next, when he heard a foot upon the stair.
In a few moments a man stood in his presence, who, with a keenly
observant look at him, addressed him by his name.
「Your servant,」 said Mr. Lorry. 「Do you know me?」
He was a strongly made man with dark curling hair, from forty-
five to fifty years of age. For answer he repeated without any
change of emphasis, the words:
「Do you know me?」
「I have seen you somewhere.」
「Perhaps at my wine-shop?」
Much interested and agitated, Mr. Lorry said: 「You come from
Doctor Manette?」
「Yes, I come from Doctor Manette.」
「And what says he? What does he send me?」
Defarge gave into his anxious hand, an open scrap of paper. It
bore the words in the Doctor』s writing:
Charles is safe, but I cannot safely leave this place yet. I have
obtained the favour that the bearer has a short note from Charles
to his wife. Let the bearer see his wife.
It was dated from La Force, within an hour.
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「Will you accompany me,」 said Mr. Lorry, joyfully relieved after
reading this note aloud, 「to where his wife resides?」
「Yes,」 returned Defarge.
Scarcely noticing as yet, in what a curiously reserved and
mechanical way Defarge spoke, Mr. Lorry put on his hat and they
went down into the court-yard. There they found two women; one
knitting.
「Madame Defarge, surely!」 said Mr. Lorry, who had left her in
exactly the same attitude some seventeen years ago.
「It is she,」 observed her husband.
「Does Madame go with us?」 inquired Mr. Lorry, seeing that
she moved as they moved.
「Yes. That she may be able to recognise the faces and know the
persons. It is for their safety.」
Beginning to be struck by Defarge』s manner, Mr. Lorry looked
dubiously at him, and led the way. Both the women followed; the
second woman being The Vengeance.
They passed through the intervening streets as quickly as they
might, ascended the staircase of the new domicile, were admitted
by Jerry, and found Lucie weeping, alone. She was thrown into a
transport by the tidings Mr. Lorry gave her of her husband, and
clasped the hand that delivered his note—little thinking what it
had been doing near him in the night, and might, but for a chance,
have done for him.
DEAREST—Take courage. I am well, and your father has
influence around me. You cannot answer this. Kiss our child for
me.
That was all the writing. It was so much, however, to her who
received it, that she turned from Defarge to his wife, and kissed
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one of the hands that knitted. It was a passionate, loving, thankful,
womanly action, but the hand made no response—dropped cold
and heavy, and took to its knitting again.
There was something in its touch that gave Lucie a check. She
stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom, and, with her
hands yet at her neck, looked terrified at Madame Defarge.
Madame Defarge met the lifted eyebrows and forehead with a
cold, impassive stare.
「My dear,」 said Mr. Lorry, striking in to explain; 「there are
frequent risings in the streets; and, although it is not likely they
will ever trouble you, Madame Defarge wishes to see those whom
she has the power to protect at such times, to the end that she may
know them—that she may identify them. I believe,」 said Mr.
Lorry, rather halting in his reassuring words, as the stony manner
of all the three impressed itself upon him more and more, 「I state
the case, Citizen Defarge?」
Defarge looked gloomily at his wife, and gave no other answer
than a gruff sound of acquiescence.
「You had better, Lucie,」 said Mr. Lorry, doing all he could to
propitiate, by tone and manner, 「have the dear child here, and our
good Pross. Our good Pross, Defarge, is an English lady, and
knows no French.」
The lady in question, whose rooted conviction that she was
more than a match for any foreigner, was not to be shaken by
distress and danger, appeared with folded arms, and observed in
English to The Vengeance, whom her eyes first encountered,
「Well, I am sure, Boldface! I hope you are pretty well!」 She also
bestowed a British cough on Madame Defarge; but, neither of the
two took much heed of her.
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「Is that his child?」 said Madame Defarge, stopping in her work
for the first time and pointing her knitting-needle at little Lucie as
if it were the finger of Fate.
「Yes, Madame,」 answered Mr. Lorry; 「this is our poor
prisoner』s darling daughter, and only child.」
The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party
seemed to fall so threatening and dark on the child, that her
mother instinctively kneeled on the ground beside her, and held
her to her breast. The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and
her party seemed then to fall, threatening and dark, on both the
mother and the child.
「It is enough, my husband,」 said Madame Defarge. 「I have seen
them. We may go.」
But the suppressed manner had enough of menace in it—not
visible and presented, but indistinct and withheld—to alarm Lucie
into saying, as she laid her appealing hand on Madame Defarge』s
dress:
「You will be good to my poor husband. You will do him no
harm. You will help me to see him if you can?」
「Your husband is not my business here,」 returned Madame
Defarge, looking down at her with perfect composure. 「It is the
daughter of your father who is my business here.」
「For my sake, then, be merciful to my husband. For my child』s
sake! She will put her hands together and pray you to be merciful.
We are more afraid of you than of these others.」
Madame Defarge received it as a compliment, and looked at her
husband. Defarge, who had been uneasily biting his thumb-nail
and looking at her, collected his face into a sterner expression.
「What is that your husband says in that little letter?」 asked
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Madame Defarge, with a lowering smile. 「Influence; he says
something touching influence?」
「That my father,」 said Lucie, hurriedly taking the paper from
her breast, but with her alarmed eyes on her questioner and not
on it, 「has much influence around him.」
「Surely it will release him!」 said Madame Defarge. 「Let it do
so.」
「As a wife and mother,」 cried Lucie most earnestly, 「I implore
you to have pity on me and not exercise any power that you
possess, against my innocent husband, but to use it in his behalf. O
sister-woman, think of me. As a wife and mother!」
Madame Defarge looked, coldly as ever, at the suppliant, and
said, turning to her friend The Vengeance:
「The wives and mothers we have been used to see, since we
were as little as this child, and much less, have not been greatly
considered? We have known their husbands and fathers laid in
prison and kept from them, often enough? All our lives, we have
seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children,
poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression,
and neglect of all kinds?」
「We have seen nothing else,」 returned The Vengeance.
「We have borne this a long time,」 said Madame Defarge,
turning her eyes again upon Lucie. 「Judge you! Is it likely that the
trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now?」
She resumed her knitting and went out. The Vengeance
followed. Defarge went last, and closed the door.
「Courage, my dear Lucie,」 said Mr. Lorry, as he raised her.
「Courage, courage! So far all goes well with us—much, much
better than it has of late gone with many poor souls. Cheer up, and
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have a thankful heart.」
「I am not thankless, I hope, but that dreadful woman seems to
throw a shadow on me and on all my hopes.」
「Tut, tut!」 said Mr. Lorry; 「what is this despondency in the
brave little beast? A shadow indeed! No substance in it, Lucie.」
But the shadow of the manner of these Defarges was dark upon
himself, for all that, and in his secret mind it troubled him greatly.
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Chapter XXXIV
CALM IN STORM
Doctor Manette did not return until the morning of the
fourth day of his absence. So much of what had happened
in that dreadful time as could be kept from the
knowledge of Lucie was so well concealed from her, that not until
long afterwards, when France and she were far apart, did she
know that eleven hundred defenceless prisoners of both sexes and
all ages had been killed by the populace; that four days and nights
had been darkened by this deed of horror; and that the air around
her had been tainted by the slain. She only knew that there had
been an attack upon the prisons, that all political prisoners had
been in danger, and that some had been dragged out by the crowd
and murdered.
To Mr. Lorry, the Doctor communicated under an injunction of
secrecy on which he had no need to dwell, that the crowd had
taken him through a scene of carnage to the prison La Force.
That, in the prison he had found a self-appointed Tribunal sitting,
before which the prisoners were brought singly, and by which
they were rapidly ordered to be put forth to be massacred, or to be
released, or (in a few cases) to be sent back to their cells. That,
presented by his conductors to this Tribunal, he had announced
himself by name and profession as having been for eighteen years
a secret and unaccused prisoner in the Bastille; that, one of the
body so sitting in judgment had risen and identified him, and that
this man was Defarge. That, hereupon he had ascertained,
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through the registers on the table, that his son-in-law was among
the living prisoners, and had pleaded hard to the Tribunal—of
whom some members were asleep and some awake, some dirty
with murder and some clean, some sober and some not—for his
life and liberty. That, in the first frantic greetings lavished on
himself as a notable sufferer under the over-thrown system, it had
been accorded to him to have Charles Darnay brought before the
lawless Court, and examined. That, he seemed on the point of
being at once released, when the tide in his favour met with some
unexplained check (not intelligible to the Doctor), which led to a
few words of secret conference. That, the man sitting as President
had then informed Doctor Manette that the prisoner must remain
in custody, but should, for his sake, be held inviolate in safe
custody. That, immediately, on a signal, the prisoner was removed
to the interior of the prison again; but, that he, the Doctor, had
then so strongly pleaded for permission to remain and assure
himself that his son-in-law was, through no malice or mischance,
delivered to the concourse whose murderous yells outside the gate
had often drowned the proceedings, that he had obtained the
permission, and had remained in that Hall of Blood until the
danger was over.
The sights he had seen there, with brief snatches of food and
sleep by intervals, shall remain untold. The mad joy over the
prisoners who were saved, had astounded him scarcely less than
the mad ferocity against those who were cut to pieces. One
prisoner there was, he said, who had been discharged into the
street free, but at whom a mistaken savage had thrust a pike as he
passed out. Being besought to go to him and dress the wound, the
Doctor had passed out at the same gate, and found him in the
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arms of a company of Samaritans, who were seated on the bodies
of their victims. With an inconsistency as monstrous as anything in
this awful nightmare, they had helped the healer, and tended the
wounded man with the gentlest solicitude—had made a litter for
him and escorted him carefully from the spot—had then caught up
their weapons and plunged anew into a butchery so dreadful, that
the Doctor had covered his eyes with his hands, and swooned
away in the midst of it.
As Mr. Lorry received these confidences, and as he watched the
face of his friend now sixty-two years of age, a misgiving arose
within him that such dreadful experiences would revive the old
danger. But, he had never seen his friend in his present aspect: he
had never at all known him in his present character. For the first
time the Doctor felt, now, that his suffering was strength and
power. For the first time he felt that in that sharp fire, he had
slowly forged the iron which could break the prison door of his
daughter』s husband, and deliver him. 「It all tended to a good end,
my friend; it was not mere waste and ruin. As my beloved child
was helpful in restoring me to myself, I will be helpful now in
restoring the dearest part of herself to her; by the aid of Heaven I
will do it!」 Thus, Doctor Manette. And when Jarvis Lorry saw the
kindled eyes, the resolute face, the calm strong look and bearing of
the man whose life always seemed to him to have been stopped,
like a clock, for so many years, and then set going again with an
energy which had lain dormant during the cessation of its
usefulness, he believed.
Greater things than the Doctor had at that time to contend
with, would have yielded before his persevering purpose. While he
kept himself in his place, as a physician, whose business was with
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all degrees of mankind, bond and free, rich and poor, bad and
good, he used his personal influence so wisely, that he was soon
the inspecting physician of three prisons, and among them of La
Force. He could now assure Lucie that her husband was no longer
confined alone, but was mixed with the general body of prisoners;
he saw her husband weekly, and brought sweet messages to her,
straight from his lips; sometimes her husband himself sent a letter
to her (though never by the Doctor』s hand), but she was not
permitted to write to him: for, among the many wild suspicions of
plots in the prisons, the wildest of all pointed at emigrants who
were known to have made friends or permanent connections
abroad.
This new life of the Doctor』s was an anxious life, no doubt; still,
the sagacious Mr. Lorry saw that there was a new sustaining pride
in it. Nothing unbecoming tinged the pride; it was a natural and
worthy one; but he observed it as a curiosity. The Doctor knew,
that up to that time, his imprisonment had been associated in the
minds of his daughter and his friend, with his personal affliction,
deprivation, and weakness. Now that this was changed, and he
knew himself to be invested through that old trial with forces to
which they both looked for Charles』s ultimate safety and
deliverance, he became so far exalted by the change, that he took
the lead and direction, and required them as the weak, to trust to
him as the strong. The preceding relative positions of himself and
Lucie were reversed, yet only as the liveliest gratitude and
affection could reverse them, for he could have had no pride but in
rendering some service to her who had rendered so much to him.
「All curious to see,」 thought Mr. Lorry, in his amiably shrewd
way, 「but all natural and right; so, take the lead, my dear friend,
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and keep it; it couldn』t be in better hands.」
But, though the Doctor tried hard, and never ceased trying, to
get Charles Darnay set at liberty, or at least to get him brought to
trial, the public current of the time set too strong and fast for him.
The new era began; the king was tried, doomed and beheaded; the
Republic of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, declared for
victory or death against the world in arms; the black flag waved
night and day from the great towers of Notre Dame; three
hundred thousand men, summoned to rise against the tyrants of
the earth, rose from all the varying soils of France, as if the
dragon』s teeth had been sown broadcast, and had yielded fruit
equally on hill and plain, on rock, in gravel, and alluvial mud,
under the bright sky of the South and under the clouds of the
North, in fell and forest, in the vineyards and the olive-grounds
and among the cropped grass and the stubble of the corn, along
the fruitful banks of the broad rivers, and in the sand of the
seashore. What private solicitude could rear itself against the
deluge of the Year One of Liberty—the deluge rising from below,
not falling from above, and with the windows of Heaven shut, not
opened!
There was no pause, no pity, no peace, no interval of relenting
rest, no measurement of time. Though days and nights circled as
regularly as when time was young, and the evening and morning
were the first day, other count of time there was none. Hold of it
was lost in the raging fever of a nation, as it is in the fever of one
patient. Now, breaking the unnatural silence of a whole city, the
executioner showed the people the head of the king—and now, it
seemed almost in the same breath, the head of his fair wife which
had had eight weary months of imprisoned widowhood and
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misery, to turn it grey.
And yet, observing the strange law of contradiction which
obtains in all such cases, the time was long, while it flamed by so
fast. A revolutionary tribunal in the capital, and forty or fifty
thousand revolutionary committees all over the land; a law of the
Suspected, which struck away all security for liberty or life, and
delivered over any good and innocent person to any bad and guilty
one; prisons gorged with people who had committed no offence,
and could obtain no hearing; these things became the established
order and nature of appointed things, and seemed to be ancient
usage before they were many weeks old. Above all, one hideous
figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze
from the foundations of the world—the figure of the sharp female
called La Guillotine.
It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for
headache, it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey, it
imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion, it was the National
Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine, looked
through the window and sneezed into the sack. It was the sign of
the regeneration of the human race. It superseded the Cross.
Models of it were worn on breasts from which the Cross was
discarded, and it was bowed down to and believed in where the
Cross was denied.
It sheared off heads so many, that it, and the ground it most
polluted, were a rotten red. It was taken to pieces, like a toy-puzzle
for a young Devil, and was put together again when the occasion
wanted it. It hushed the eloquent, struck down the powerful,
abolished the beautiful and good. Twenty-two friends of high
public mark, twenty-one living and one dead, it had lopped the
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heads off, in one morning, in as many minutes. The name of the
strong man of Old Scripture had descended to the chief
functionary who worked it; but, so armed, he was stronger than
his namesake, and blinder, and tore away the gates of God』s own
Temple every day.
Among these terrors, and the brood belonging to them, the
Doctor walked with a steady head; confident in his power,
cautiously persistent in his end, never doubting that he would
have Lucie』s husband at last. Yet the current of the time swept by,
so strong and deep, and carried the time away so fiercely, that
Charles had lain in prison one year and three months when the
Doctor was thus steady and confident. So much more wicked and
distracted had the Revolution grown in that December month,
that the rivers of the South were encumbered with the bodies of
the violently drowned by night, and prisoners were shot in lines
and squares under the southern wintry sun. Still, the Doctor
walked among the terrors with a steady head. No man better
known than he, in Paris at that day; no man in a stranger
situation. Silent, humane, indispensable in hospital and prison,
using his art equally among assassins and victim, he was a man
apart. In the exercise of his skill, the appearance and the story of
the Bastille Captive removed him from all other men. He was not
suspected or brought in question, any more than if he had indeed
been recalled to life some eighteen years before, or were a spirit
moving among mortals.
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Chapter XXXV
THE WOOD-SAWYER
O ne year and three months. During all that time Lucie was
never sure, from hour to hour, but that the Guillotine
would strike off her husband』s head next day. Every day,
through the stony streets, the tumbrils now jolted heavily, filled
with Condemned. Lovely girls; bright women, brown-haired,
black-haired, and grey; youths; stalwart men and old; gentle born
and peasant born; all red wine for La Guillotine, all daily brought
into light from the dark cellars of the loathsome prisons, and
carried to her through the streets to slake her devouring thirst.
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death;—the last, much the easiest
to bestow, O Guillotine!
If the suddenness of her calamity, and the whirling wheels of
the time, had stunned the Doctor』s daughter into awaiting the
result in idle despair, it would but have been with her as it was
with many. But, from the hour when she had taken the white head
to her fresh young bosom in the garret of Saint Antoine, she had
been true to her duties. She was truest to them in the season of
trial, as all the quietly loyal and good will always be.
As soon as they were established in their new residence, and
her father had entered on the routine of his avocations, she
arranged the little household as exactly as if her husband had
been there. Everything had its appointed place and its appointed
time. Little Lucie she taught, as regularly, as if they had all been
united in their English home. The slight devices with which she
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cheated herself into the show of a belief that they would soon be
reunited—the little preparations for his speedy return, the setting
aside of his chair and his books—these, and the solemn prayer at
night for one dear prisoner especially, among the many unhappy
souls in prison and the shadow of death—were almost the only
outspoken reliefs of her heavy mind.
She did not greatly alter in appearance. The plain dark dresses,
akin to mourning dresses, which she and her child wore, were as
neat and as well attended to as the brighter clothes of happy days.
She lost her colour, and the old and intent expression was a
constant, not an occasional, thing; otherwise, she remained very
pretty and comely. Sometimes, at night on kissing her father, she
would burst into the grief she had repressed all day, and would say
that her sole reliance, under Heaven, was on him. He always
resolutely answered: 「Nothing can happen to him without my
knowledge, and I know that I can save him, Lucie.」
They had not made the round of their changed life many weeks,
when her father said to her, on coming home one evening:
「My dear, there is an upper window in the prison, to which
Charles can sometimes gain access at three in the afternoon.
When he can get to it—which depends on many uncertainties and
incidents—he might see you in the street, he thinks, if you stood in
a certain place that I can show you. But you will not be able to see
him, my poor child, and even if you could, it would be unsafe for
you to make a sign of recognition.」
「Oh show me the place, my father, and I will go there every
day.」
From that time, in all weathers, she waited there two hours. As
the clock struck two, she was there, and at four she turned
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resignedly away. When it was not too wet or inclement for her
child to be with her, they went together; at other times she was
alone; but, she never missed a single day.
It was the dark and dirty corner of a small winding street. The
hovel of a cutter of wood into lengths for burning was the only
house at that end; all else was wall. On the third day of her being
there, he noticed her.
「Good day, citizeness.」
「Good day, citizen.」
This mode of address was now prescribed by decree. It had
been established voluntarily some time ago, among the more
thorough patriots; but, was now law for everybody.
「Walking here again, citizeness?」
「You see me, citizen!」
The wood-sawyer, who was a little man with a redundancy of
gesture (he had once been a mender of roads), cast a glance at the
prison, pointed at the prison, and putting his ten fingers before his
face to represent bars, peeped through them jocosely.
「But it』s not my business,」 said he. And went on sawing his
wood.
Next day he was looking out for her, and accosted her the
moment she appeared.
「What! Walking here again, citizeness?」
「Yes, citizen.」
「Ah! A child too! Your mother, is it not, my little citizeness?」
「Do I say yes, mamma?」 whispered little Lucie, drawing close
to her.
「Yes, dearest.」
「Yes, citizen.」
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「Ah, But it』s not my business. My work is my business. See my
saw! I call it my Little Guillotine. La, la, la; La, la, la! And off his
head comes!」
The billet fell as he spoke, and he threw it into a basket.
「I call myself the Samson of the firewood guillotine. See here
again! Loo, loo, loo; Loo, loo, loo! And off her head comes! Now, a
child. Tickle, tickle; Pickle, pickle! And off its head comes. All the
family!」
Lucie shuddered as he threw two more billets into his basket,
but it was impossible to be there while the wood-sawyer was at
work, and not be in his sight. Thenceforth, to secure his good will,
she always spoke to him first, and often gave him drink-money,
which he readily received.
He was an inquisitive fellow, and sometimes when she had
quite forgotten him in gazing at the prison roof and grates, and in
lifting her heart up to her husband, she would come to herself to
find him looking at her, with his knee on his bench and his saw
stopped in its work. 「But it』s not my business!」 he would generally
say at those times, and would briskly fall to his sawing again.
In all weathers, in the snow and frost of winter, in the bitter
winds of spring, in the hot sunshine of summer, in the rains of
autumn, and again in the snow and frost of winter, Lucie passed
two hours of every day at this place; and every day on leaving it,
she kissed the prison wall. Her husband saw her (so she learned
from her father) it might be once in five or six times: it might be
twice or thrice running: it might be, not for a week or a fortnight
together. It was enough that he could and did see her when the
chances served, and on that possibility she would have waited out
the day, seven days a week.
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These occupations brought her round to the December month,
wherein her father walked among the terrors with a steady head.
On a lightly-snowing afternoon she arrived at the usual corner. It
was a day of some wild rejoicing, and a festival. She had seen the
houses, as she came along, decorated with little pikes, and with
little red caps stuck upon them; also, with tricoloured ribbons;
also, with the standard inscription (tricoloured letters were the
favourite), Republic One and Indivisible. Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity, or Death!
The miserable shop of the wood-sawyer was so small, that its
whole surface furnished very indifferent space for this legend. He
had got somebody to scrawl it up for him, however, who had
squeezed Death in with most inappropriate difficulty. On his
house-top, he displayed pike and cap, as a good citizen must, and
in a window he had stationed his saw inscribed as his 「Little
Sainte Guillotine」—for the great sharp female was by that time
popularly canonised. His shop was shut and he was not there,
which was a relief to Lucie, and left her quite alone.
But, he was not far off, for presently she heard a troubled
movement and a shouting coming along, which filled her with fear.
A moment afterwards, and a throng of people came pouring round
the corner by the prison wall, in the midst of which was the wood-
sawyer hand in hand with The Vengeance. There could not be
fewer than five hundred people, and they were dancing like five
thousand demons. There was no other music than their own
singing. They danced to the popular Revolution song, keeping a
ferocious time that was like a gnashing of teeth in unison. Men and
women danced together, women danced together, men danced
together, as hazard had brought them together. At first, they were
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a mere storm of coarse red caps and coarse woollen rags; but, as
they filled the place, and stopped to dance about Lucie, some
ghastly apparition of a dance-figure gone raving mad arose among
them. They advanced, retreated, struck at one another』s hands,
clutched at one another』s heads, spun round alone, caught one
another and spun round in pairs, until many of them dropped.
While those were down, the rest linked hand in hand, and all spun
round together: then the ring broke, and in separate rings of two
and four they turned and turned until they all stopped at once,
began again, struck, clutched, and tore, and then reversed the
spin, and all spun round another way. Suddenly they stopped
again, paused, struck out the time afresh, formed into lines the
width of the public way, and, with their heads low down and their
hands high up, swooped screaming off. No fight could have been
half so terrible as this dance. It was so emphatically a fallen
sport—a something, once innocent, delivered over to all devilry—a
healthy pastime changed into a means of angering the blood,
bewildering the senses, and stealing the heart. Such grace as was
visible in it, made it the uglier, showing how warped and
perverted all things good by nature were become. The maidenly
bosom bared to this, the pretty almost-child』s head thus distracted,
the delicate foot mincing in this slough of blood and dirt, were
types of the disjointed time.
This was the Carmagnole. As it passed, leaving Lucie
frightened and bewildered in the doorway of the wood-sawyer』s
house, the feathery snow fell as quietly and lay as white and soft,
as if it had never been.
「O my father!」 for he stood before her when he lifted up the
eyes she had momentarily darkened with her hand; 「such a cruel,
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bad sight.」
「I know, my dear, I know. I have seen it many times. Don』t be
frightened. Not one of them would harm you.」
「I am not frightened for myself, my father. But when I think of
my husband, and the mercies of these people—」 「We will set him
above their mercies very soon. I left him climbing to the window,
and I came to tell you. There is no one here to see you. You may
kiss your hand towards the highest shelving roof.」
「I do so, father, and I send him my Soul with it!」
「You cannot see him, my poor dear?」
「No, father,」 said Lucie, yearning and weeping as she kissed
her hand, 「no.」
A footstep in the snow. Madame Defarge. 「I salute you,
citizeness,」 from the Doctor. 「I salute you, citizen.」 This in
passing. Nothing more. Madame Defarge gone, like a shadow over
the white road.
「Give me your arm, my love. Pass from here with an air of
cheerfulness and courage, for his sake. That was well done」; they
had left the spot; 「it shall not be in vain. Charles is summoned for
tomorrow.」
「For tomorrow!」
「There is no time to lose. I am well prepared, but there are
precautions to be taken, that could not be taken until he was
actually summoned before the Tribunal. He has not received the
notice yet, but I know that he will presently be summoned for
tomorrow, and removed to the Conciergerie; I have timely
information. You are not afraid?」
She could scarcely answer, 「I trust in you.」
「Do so implicitly. Your suspense is nearly ended, my darling; he
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shall be restored to you within a few hours; I have encompassed
him with every protection. I must see Lorry.」
He stopped. There was a heavy lumbering of wheels within
hearing. They both knew too well what it meant. One. Two. Three.
Three tumbrils faring away with their dread loads over the
hushing snow.
「I must see Lorry,」 the Doctor repeated, turning her another
way.
The staunch old gentleman was still in his trust; had never left
it. He and his books were in frequent requisition as to property
confiscated and made national. What he could save for the owners,
he saved. No better man living to hold fast by what Tellson』s had
in keeping, and to hold his peace.
A murky red and yellow sky, and a rising mist from the Seine,
denoted the approach of darkness. It was almost dark when they
arrived at the Bank. The stately residence of Monseigneur was
altogether blighted and deserted. Above a heap of dust and ashes
in the court, ran the letters: National Property. Republic One and
Indivisible. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death!
Who could that be with Mr. Lorry—the owner of the riding-coat
upon the chair—who must not be seen? From whom newly
arrived, did he come out, agitated and surprised, to take his
favourite in his arms? To whom did he appear to repeat her
faltering words, when, raising his voice and turning his head
towards the door of the room from which he had issued, he said:
「Removed to the Conciergerie, and summoned for tomorrow?」
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Chapter XXXVI
TRIUMPH
T he dread Tribunal of five Judges, Public Prosecutor, and
determined Jury, sat every day. Their lists went forth
every evening, and were read out by the gaolers of the
various prisons to their prisoners. The standard gaoler-joke was
「Come out and listen to the Evening Paper, you inside there!」
「Charles Evremonde, called Darnay!」
So at last began the Evening Paper at La Force.
When a name was called, its owner stepped apart into a spot
reserved for those who were announced as being thus fatally
recorded. Charles Evremonde, called Darnay, had reason to know
the usage; he had seen hundreds pass away so.
His bloated gaoler, who wore spectacles to read with, glanced
over them to assure himself that he had taken his place, and went
through the list, making a similar short pause at each name. There
were twenty-three names, but only twenty were responded to; for
one of the prisoners so summoned had died in gaol and been
forgotten, and two had already been guillotined and forgotten. The
list was read, in the vaulted chamber where Darnay had seen the
associated prisoners on the night of his arrival. Every one of those
had perished in the massacre; every human creature he had since
cared for and parted with, had died on the scaffold.
There were hurried words of farewell and kindness, but the
parting was soon over. It was the incident of every day, and the
society of La Force were engaged in the preparation of some
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games of forfeits and a little concert, for that evening. They
crowded to the grates and shed tears there; but, twenty places in
the projected entertainments had to be refilled, and the time was,
at best, short to the lockup hour, when the common rooms and
corridors would be delivered over to the great dogs who kept
watch there through the night. The prisoners were far from
insensible or unfeeling; their ways arose out of the condition of the
time. Similarly, though with a subtle difference, a species of
fervour or intoxication, known, without doubt, to have led some
persons to brave the guillotine unnecessarily, and to die by it, was
not mere boastfulness, but a wild infection of the wildly shaken
public mind. In seasons of pestilence, some of us will have a secret
attraction to the disease—a terrible passing inclination to die of it.
And all of us have like wonders hidden in our breasts, only
needing circumstances to evoke them.
The passage to the Conciergerie was short and dark; the night
in its vermin-haunted cells was long and cold. Next day, fifteen
prisoners were put to the bar before Charles Darnay』s name was
called. All the fifteen were condemned, and the trials of the whole
occupied an hour and a half.
「Charles Evremonde, called Darnay,」 was at length arraigned.
His judges sat upon the Bench in feathered hats; but the rough
red cap and tricoloured cockade was the head-dress otherwise
prevailing. Looking at the Jury and the turbulent audience, he
might have thought that the usual order of things was reversed,
and that the felons were trying the honest men. The lowest,
cruelest, and worst populace of a city, never without its quantity of
low, cruel, and bad, were the directing spirits of the scene: noisily
commenting, applauding, disapproving, anticipating, and
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precipitating the result, without a check. Of the men, the greater
part were armed in various ways; of the women, some wore
knives, some daggers, some ate and drank as they looked on, many
knitted. Among these last, was one, with a spare piece of knitting
under her arm as she worked. She was in a front row, by the side
of a man whom he had never seen since his arrival at the Barrier,
but whom he directly remembered as Defarge. He noticed that she
once or twice whispered in his ear, and that she seemed to be his
wife; but, what he most noticed in the two figures was, that
although they were posted as close to himself as they could be,
they never looked towards him. They seemed to be waiting for
something with a dogged determination and they looked at the
Jury, but at nothing else. Under the President sat Doctor Manette,
in his usual quiet dress. As well as the prisoner could see, he and
Mr. Lorry were the only two men there, unconnected with the
Tribunal, who wore their usual clothes, and had not assumed the
coarse garb of the Carmagnole.
Charles Evremonde, called Darnay, was accused by the public
prosecutor as an emigrant, whose life was forfeit to the Republic,
under the decree which banished all emigrants on pain of Death.
It was nothing that the decree bore date since his return to
France. There he was, and there was the decree; he had been
taken in France, and his head was demanded.
「Take off his head!」 cried the audience. 「An enemy to the
Republic!」
The President rang his bell to silence those cries, and asked the
prisoner whether it was not true that he had lived many years in
England?
Undoubtedly it was.
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Was he not an emigrant then? What did he call himself?
Not an emigrant, he hoped, within the sense and spirit of the
law.
Why not? the President desired to know.
Because he had voluntarily relinquished a title that was
distasteful to him, and a station that was distasteful to him, and
had left his country—he submitted before the word emigrant in
the present acceptation by the Tribunal was in use—to live by his
own industry in England, rather than on the industry of the
overladen people of France.
What proof had he of this?
He handed in the name of two witness; Theophile Gabelle, and
Alexandre Manette.
But he had married in England? the President reminded him.
True, but not an English woman.
A citizeness of France?
Yes. By birth.
Her name and family?
「Lucie Manette, only daughter of Doctor Manette, the good
physician who sits there」 This answer had a happy effect upon the
audience. Cries in exaltation of the well-known good physician
rent the hall. So capriciously were the people moved, that tears
immediately rolled down several ferocious countenances which
had been glaring at the prisoner a moment before, as if with
impatience to pluck him out into the streets and kill him.
On these few steps of his dangerous way, Charles Darnay had
set his foot according to Doctor Manette』s reiterated instructions.
The same cautious counsel directed every step that lay before him,
and had prepared every inch of his road.
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The President asked, why had he returned to France when he
did, and not sooner?
He had not returned sooner, he replied, simply because he had
no means of living in France, save those he had resigned; whereas,
in England, he lived by giving instruction in the French language
and literature He had returned when he did, on the pressing and
written entreaty of a French citizen, who represented that his life
was endangered by his absence. He had come back, to save a
citizen』s life, and to bear his testimony, at whatever personal
hazard, to the truth. Was that criminal in the eyes of the Republic?
The populace cried enthusiastically, 「No!」 and the President
rang his bell to quiet them. Which it did not, for they continued to
cry 「No!」 until they left off, of their own will.
The President required the name of that citizen? The accused
explained that the citizen was his first witness. He also referred
with confidence to the citizen』s letter, which had been taken from
him at the Barrier, but which he did not doubt would be found
among the papers then before the President.
The doctor had taken care that it should be there—had assured
him that it would be there—and at this stage of the proceedings it
was produced and read Citizen Gabelle was called to confirm it,
and did so. Citizen Gabelle hinted, with infinite delicacy and
politeness, that in the pressure of business imposed on the
Tribunal by the multitude of enemies of the Republic with which it
had to deal, he had been slightly overlooked in his prison of the
Abbaye—in fact, had rather passed out of the Tribunal』s patriotic
remembrance—until three days ago; when he had been
summoned before it, and had been set at liberty on the Jury』s
declaring themselves satisfied that the accusation against him was
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answered, as to himself, by the surrender of the citizen
Evremonde, called Darnay.
Doctor Manette was next questioned. His high personal
popularity, and the clearness of his answers, made a great
impression: but, as he proceeded, as he showed that the accused
was his first friend on his release from his long imprisonment;
that, the accused had remained in England, always faithful and
devoted to his daughter and himself in their exile; that, so far from
being in favour with the Aristocrat government there, he had
actually been tried for his life by it, as the foe of England and
friend of the United States—as he brought these circumstances
into view, with the greatest discretion and with the
straightforward force of truth and earnestness, the Jury and the
populace became one At last, when he appealed by name to
Monsieur Lorry, an English gentleman then and there present,
who, like himself, had been a witness on that English trial and
could corroborate his account of it, the Jury declared that they had
heard enough, and that they were ready with their votes if the
President were content to receive them.
At every vote (the Jurymen voted aloud and individually), the
populace set up a shout of applause. All the voices were in the
prisoner』s favour, and the President declared him free.
Then, began one of those extraordinary scenes with which the
populace sometimes gratified their fickleness, or their better
impulses towards generosity and mercy, or which they regarded
as some set-off against their swollen account of cruel rage. No man
can decide now to which of these motives such extraordinary
scenes were referable; it is probable, to a blending of all three,
with the second predominating. No sooner was the acquittal
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pronounced, than tears were shed as freely as blood at another
time, and such fraternal embraces were bestowed upon the
prisoner by as many of both sexes as could rush at him, that after
his long and unwholesome confinement he was in danger of
fainting from exhaustion; none the less because he knew very well,
that the very same people, carried by another current, would have
rushed at him with the very same intensity, to rend him to pieces
and strew him over the streets.
His removal, to make way for other accused persons who were
to be tried, rescued him from these caresses for the moment. Five
were to be tried together, next, as enemies of the Republic,
forasmuch as they had not assisted it by word or deed. So quick
was the Tribunal to compensate itself and the nation for a chance
lost, that these five came down to him before he left the place,
condemned to die within twenty-four hours. The first of them told
him so, with the customary prison sign of Death—a raised finger—
and they all added in words, 「Long live the Republic!」
The five had had, it is true, no audience to lengthen their
proceedings, for when he and Doctor Manette emerged from the
gate, there was a great crowd about it, in which there seemed to be
every face he had seen in Court, except two, for which he looked in
vain. On his coming out, the concourse made at him anew,
weeping, embracing, and shouting, all by turns and all together,
until the very tide of the river on the bank of which the mad scene
was acted, seemed to run mad, like the people on the shore.
They put him into a great chair they had among them, and
which they had taken either out of the Court itself, or one of its
rooms or passages. Over the chair they had thrown a red flag, and
to the back of it they had bound a pike with a red cap on its top. In
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this car of triumph, not even the Doctor』s entreaties could prevent
his being carried to his home on men』s shoulders, with a confused
sea of red caps heaving about him, and casting up to sight from
the stormy deep such wrecks of faces, that he more than once
misdoubted his mind being in confusion, and that he was in the
tumbril on his way to the Guillotine.
In wild dreamlike procession, embracing whom they met and
pointing him out, they carried him on. Reddening the snowy
streets with the prevailing Republican colour, in winding and
tramping through them, as they had reddened them below the
snow with a deeper dye, they carried him thus into the court-yard
of the building where he lived. Her father had gone on before, to
prepare her, and when her husband stood upon his feet, she
dropped insensible in his arms.
As he held her to his heart and turned her beautiful head
between his face and the brawling crowd, so that his tears and her
lips might come together unseen, a few of the people fell to
dancing. Instantly, all the rest fell to dancing, and the court-yard
overflowed with the Carmagnole. Then, they elevated into the
vacant chair a young woman from the crowd to be carried as the
Goddess of Liberty, and then swelling and overflowing out into the
adjacent streets, and along the river』s bank, and over the bridge,
the Carmagnole absorbed them every one and whirled them away.
After grasping the Doctor』s hand, as he stood victorious and
proud before him; after grasping the hand of Mr. Lorry, who came
panting in breathless from his struggle against the waterspout of
the Carmagnole; after kissing little Lucie, who was lifted up to
clasp her hands round his neck; and after embracing the ever
zealous and faithful Pross who lifted her; he took his wife in his
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arms, and carried her up to their rooms.
「Lucie! My own! I am safe.」
「O dearest Charles, let me thank God for this on my knees as I
have prayed to Him.」
They all reverently bowed their heads and hearts. When she
was again in his arms, he said to her— 「And now speak to your
father, dearest. No other man in all this France could have done
what he has done for me.」
She laid her head upon her father』s breast, as she had laid his
poor head on her own breast, long, long ago. He was happy in the
return he had made her, he was recompensed for his suffering, he
was proud of his strength. 「You must not be weak, my darling,」 he
remonstrated; 「don』t tremble so. I have saved him.」
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Chapter XXXVII
A KNOCK AT THE DOOR
Ihave saved him.」 It was not another of the dreams in which
he had often come back; he was really here. And yet his wife
trembled, and a vague but heavy fear was upon her.
All the air round was so thick and dark, the people were so
passionately revengeful and fitful, the innocent were so constantly
put to death on vague suspicion and black malice, it was so
impossible to forget that many as blameless as her husband and as
dear to others as he was to her, every day shared the fate from
which he had been clutched, that her heart could not be as
lightened of its load as she felt it ought to be. The shadows of the
wintry afternoon were beginning to fall, and even now the
dreadful carts were rolling through the streets. Her mind pursued
them, looking for him among the condemned; and then she clung
closer to his real presence and trembled more.
Her father, cheering her, showed a compassionate superiority
to this woman』s weakness, which was wonderful to see. No garret,
no shoemaking, no One Hundred and Five, North Tower, now! He
had accomplished the task he had set himself, his promise was
redeemed, he had saved Charles. Let them all lean upon him.
Their housekeeping was of a very frugal kind: not only because
that was the safest way of life, involving the least offence to the
people, but because they were not rich, and Charles, throughout
his imprisonment, had had to pay heavily for his bad food, and for
his guard, and towards the living of the poorer prisoners. Partly on
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this account, and partly to avoid a domestic spy, they kept no
servant; the citizen and citizeness who acted as porters at the
court-yard gate, rendered them occasional service; and Jerry
(almost wholly transferred to them by Mr. Lorry) had become
their daily retainer, and had his bed there every night.
It was an ordinance of the Republic One and Indivisible, of
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, that on the door or doorpost of every house, the name of every inmate must be legibly
inscribed in letters of a certain size, at a certain convenient height
from the ground. Mr. Jerry Cruncher』s name, therefore, duly
embellished the door-post down below; and, as the afternoon
shadows deepened, the owner of that name himself appeared,
from overlooking a painter whom Doctor Manette had employed
to add to the list the name of Charles Evremonde, called Darnay.
In the universal fear and distrust that darkened the time, all the
usual harmless ways of life were changed. In the Doctor』s little
household, as in very many others, the articles of daily
consumption that were wanted were purchased every evening, in
small quantities and at various small shops. To avoid attracting
notice, and to give as little occasion as possible for talk and envy,
was the general desire.
For some months past, Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher had
discharged the office of purveyors; the former carrying the money;
the latter, the basket. Every afternoon at about the time when the
public lamps were lighted, they fared forth on this duty, and made
and brought home such purchases as were needful. Although Miss
Pross, through her long associations with a French family, might
have known as much of their language as of her own, if she had
had a mind, she had no mind in that direction; consequently she
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knew no more of that 「nonsense」 (as she was pleased to call it)
than Mr. Cruncher did. So her manner of marketing was to plump
a noun-substantive at the head of a shop-keeper without any
introduction in the nature of an article, and, if it happened not to
be the name of the thing she wanted, to look round for that thing,
lay hold of it, and hold on by it until the bargain was concluded.
She always made a bargain for it, by holding up, as a statement of
its just price, one finger less than the merchant held up, whatever
his number might be.
「Now, Mr. Cruncher,」 said Miss Pross, whose eyes were red
with felicity; 「if you are ready, I am.」
Jerry hoarsely professed himself at Miss Pross』s service. He had
worn all his rust off long ago, but nothing would file his spiky head
down.
「There』s all manner of things wanted,」 said Miss Pross, 「and
we shall have a precious time of it. We want wine, among the rest.
Nice toasts these Redheads will be drinking, wherever we buy it.」
「It will be much the same to your knowledge, miss, I should
think,」 retorted Jerry, 「whether they drink your health or the Old
Un』s.」
「Who』s he?」 said Miss Pross.
Mr. Cruncher, with some diffidence, explained himself as
meaning 「Old Nick』s.」
「Ha!」 said Miss Pross, 「it doesn』t need an interpreter to explain
the meaning of these creatures. They have but one, and it』s
Midnight Murder, and Mischief.」 「Hush, dear! Pray, pray, be
cautious!」 cried Lucie.
「Yes, yes, yes, I』ll be cautious,」 said Miss Pross; 「but I may say
among ourselves, that I do hope there will be no oniony and
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tobaccoy smotherings in the form of embracings all round, going
on in the streets. Now, Ladybird, never you stir from that fire till I
come back! Take care of the dear husband you have recovered,
and don』t move your pretty head from his shoulder as you have it
now, till you see me again! May I ask a question, Doctor Manette,
before I go?」
「I think you may take that liberty,」 the Doctor answered,
smiling.
「For gracious sake, don』t talk about Liberty; we have quite
enough of that,」 said Miss Pross.
「Hush, dear! Again?」 Lucie remonstrated.
「Well, my sweet,」 said Miss Pross, nodding her head
emphatically, 「the short and the long of it is, that I am a subject of
His Most Gracious Majesty King George the Third」; Miss Pross
curtseyed at the name; 「and as such, my maxim is, Confound their
politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks, On him our hopes we fix,
God save the King!」
Mr. Cruncher in an access of loyalty, growlingly repeated the
words after Miss Pross, like somebody at church.
「I am glad you have so much of the Englishman in you, though
I wish you had never taken that cold in your voice,」 said Miss
Pross, approvingly. 「But the question, Doctor Manette. Is there」—
it was the good creature』s way to affect to make light of anything
that was a great anxiety with them all, and to come at it in this
chance manner—「is there any prospect yet, of our getting out of
this place?」
「I fear not yet. It would be dangerous for Charles yet.」
「Heigh-ho-hum!」 said Miss Pross, cheerfully repressing a sigh
as she glanced at her darling』s golden hair in the light of the fire,
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「then we must have patience and wait; that』s all. We must hold up
our heads and fight low, as my brother Solomon used to say. Now,
Mr. Cruncher!—Don』t you move, Ladybird!」
They went out, leaving Lucie, and her husband, her father and
the child, by a bright fire. Mr. Lorry was expected back presently
from the Banking House. Miss Pross had lighted the lamp, but had
put it aside in a corner, that they might enjoy the fire-light
undisturbed. Little Lucie sat by her grandfather with her hands
clasped through his arm: and he, in a tone not rising much above a
whisper, began to tell her a story of a great and powerful Fairy
who had opened a prison wall and let out a captive who had once
done the Fairy a service. All was subdued and quiet, and Lucie
was more at ease than she had been.
「What is that?」 she cried, all at once.
「My dear!」 said her father, stopping in his story, and laying his
hand on hers, 「command yourself. What a disordered state you
are in! The least thing—nothing—startles you! You, your father』s
daughter!」
「I thought, my father,」 said Lucie, excusing herself. with a pale
face and in a faltering voice, 「that I heard strange feet upon the
stairs.」
「My love, the staircase is as still as Death.」
As he said the word, a blow was struck upon the door.
「Oh father, father. What can this be! Hide Charles. Save him!」
「My child,」 said the Doctor, rising, and laying his hand upon
her shoulder, 「I have saved him. What weakness is this, my dear!
Let me go to the door.」
He took the lamp in his hand, crossed the two intervening outer
rooms, and opened it. A rude clattering of feet over the floor, and
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four rough men in red caps, armed with sabres and pistols,
entered the room.
「The Citizen Evremonde, called Darnay,」 said the first.
「Who seeks him?」 answered Darnay.
「I seek him. We seek him. I know you, Evremonde; I saw you
before the Tribunal today. You are again the prisoner of the
Republic.」
The four surrounded him where he stood with his wife and
child clinging to him.
「Tell me how and why I am again a prisoner?」
「It is enough that you return straight to the Conciergerie, and
will know tomorrow. You are summoned for tomorrow.」
Dr. Manette, whom this visitation had so turned into stone, that
he stood with the lamp in his hand, as if he were a statue made to
hold it, moved after these words were spoken, put the lamp down,
and confronting the speaker, and taking him, not ungently, by the
loose front of his red woollen shirt, said:
「You know him, you have said. Do you know me?」
「Yes, I know you, Citizen Doctor.」
「We all know you, Citizen Doctor,」 said the other three.
He looked abstractedly from one to another, and said, in a
lower voice, after a pause:
「Will you answer this question to me then? How does this
happen?」
「Citizen Doctor,」 said the first, reluctantly, 「he has been
denounced to the Section of Saint Antoine. This citizen,」 pointing
out the second who had entered, 「is from Saint Antoine.」
The citizen here indicated nodded his head, and added:
「He is accused by Saint Antoine.」
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「Of what?」 asked the Doctor.
「Citizen Doctor,」 said the first, with his former reluctance, 「ask
no more. If the Republic demands sacrifices from you, without
doubt you as a good patriot will be happy to make them. The
Republic goes before all. The People is supreme. Evremonde, we
are pressed.」
「One word,」 the Doctor entreated. 「Will you tell me who
denounced him?」
「It is against rule,」 answered the first; 「but you can ask Him of
Saint Antoine here.」
The Doctor turned his eyes upon that man. Who moved
uneasily on his feet, rubbed his beard a little, and at length said:
「Well! Truly it is against rule. But he is denounced—and
gravely—by the Citizen and Citizeness Defarge. And by one
other.」
「What other?」
「Do you ask, Citizen Doctor?」
「Yes.」
「Then,」 said he of Saint Antoine, with a strange look, 「you will
be answered tomorrow. Now, I am dumb!」
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Chapter XXXVIII
A HAND AT CARDS
Happily unconscious of the new calamity at home, Miss
Pross threaded her way along the narrow streets and
crossed the river by the bridge of the Pont-Neuf,
reckoning in her mind the number of indispensable purchases she
had to make. Mr. Cruncher, with the basket, walked at her side.
They both looked to the right and to the left into most of the shops
they passed, had a wary eye for all gregarious assemblages of
people, and turned out of their road to avoid any very excited
group of talkers. It was a raw evening, and the misty river, blurred
to the eye with blazing lights and to the ear with harsh noises,
showed where the barges were stationed in which the smiths
worked, making guns for the Army of the Republic. Woe to the
man who played tricks with that Army, or got undeserved
promotion in it! Better for him that his beard had never grown, for
the National Razor shaved him close.
Having purchased a few small articles of grocery, and a
measure of oil for the lamp, Miss Pross bethought herself of the
wine they wanted. After peeping into several wine-shops, she
stopped at the sign of The Good Republican Brutus of Antiquity,
not far from the National Palace, once (and twice) the Tuileries,
where the aspect of things rather took her fancy. It had a quieter
look than any other place of the same description they had passed,
and though red with patriotic caps, was not so red as the rest.
Sounding Mr. Cruncher, and finding him of her opinion, Miss
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Pross resorted to The Good Republican Brutus of Antiquity,
attended by her cavalier.
Slightly observant of the smoky lights; of the people pipe in
mouth, playing with limp cards and yellow dominoes; of the one
bare-breasted, bare-armed, soot-begrimed workman reading a
journal aloud, and of the others listening to him; of the weapons
worn, or laid aside to be resumed; of the two or three customers
fallen forward asleep, who in the popular high-shouldered shaggy
black spencer looked, in that attitude, like slumbering bears or
dogs; the two outlandish customers approached the counter, and
showed what they wanted.
As their wine was measuring out, a man parted from another
man in a corner, and rose to depart. In going, he had to face Miss
Pross. No sooner did he face her, than Miss Pross uttered a
scream, and clapped her hands.
In a moment, the whole company were on their feet. That
somebody was assassinated by somebody vindicating a difference
of opinion was the likeliest occurrence. Everybody looked to see
somebody fall, but only saw a man and a woman standing staring
at each other; the man with all the outward aspect of a Frenchman
and a thorough Republican; the woman, evidently English.
What was said in this disappointing anti-climax, by the disciples
of The Good Republican Brutus of Antiquity, except that it was
something very voluble and loud, would have been as so much
Hebrew or Chaldean to Miss Pross and her protector, though they
had been all ears. But, they had no ears for anything in their
surprise. For, it must be recorded, that not only was Miss Pross
lost in amazement and agitation, but, Mr. Cruncher—though it
seemed on his own separate and individual account—was in a
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state of the greatest wonder.
「What is the matter?」 said the man who had caused Miss Pross
to scream; speaking in a vexed, abrupt voice (though in a low
tone), and in English.
「Oh, Solomon, dear Solomon!」 cried Miss Pross, clapping her
hands again. 「After not setting eyes upon you or hearing of you for
so long a time, do I find you here!」
「Don』t call me Solomon. Do you want to be the death of me?」
asked the man, in a furtive, frightened way.
「Brother, brother!」 cried Miss Pross, bursting into tears. 「Have
I ever been so hard with you that you ask me such a cruel
question?」
「Then hold your meddlesome tongue,」 said Solomon, 「and
come out, if you want to speak to me. Pay for your wine, and come
out. Who』s this man?」
Miss Pross, shaking her loving and dejected head at her by no
means affectionate brother, said through her tears, 「Mr.
Cruncher.」
「Let him come out too,」 said Solomon. 「Does he think me a
ghost?」
Apparently, Mr. Cruncher did, to judge from his looks. He said
not a word, however, and Miss Pross, exploring the depths of her
reticule through her tears with great difficulty, paid for her wine.
As she did so, Solomon turned to the followers of The Good
Republican Brutus of Antiquity, and offered a few words of
explanation in the French language, which caused them all to
relapse into their former places and pursuits.
「Now,」 said Solomon, stopping at the dark street corner, 「what
do you want?」
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「How dreadfully unkind in a brother nothing has ever turned
my love away from!」 cried Miss Pross, 「to give me such a greeting,
and show me no affection.」
「There. Con-found it! There,」 said Solomon, making a dab at
Miss Pross』s lips with his own. 「Now are you content?」
Miss Pross only shook her head and wept in silence.
「If you expect me to be surprised,」 said her brother Solomon,
「I am not surprised; I knew you were here; I know of most people
who are here. If you really don』t want to endanger my existence—
which I half believe you do—go your ways as soon as possible, and
let me go mine. I am busy. I am an official.」
「My English brother Solomon,」 mourned Miss Pross, casting
up her tear-fraught eyes, 「that had the makings in him of one of
the best and greatest of men in his native country, an official
among foreigners, and such foreigners! I would almost sooner
have seen the dear boy lying in his—」
「I said so!」 cried her brother, interrupting. 「I knew it. You want
to be the death of me. I shall be rendered Suspected, by my own
sister. Just as I am getting on!」
「The gracious and merciful Heavens forbid!」 cried Miss Pross.
「Far rather would I never see you again, dear Solomon, though I
have ever loved you truly, and ever shall. Say but one affectionate
word to me, and tell me there is nothing angry or estranged
between us, and I will detain you no longer.」
Good Miss Pross! As if the estrangement between them had
come of any culpability of hers. As if Mr. Lorry had not known it
for a fact years ago, in the quiet corner in Soho, that this precious
brother had spent her money and left her!
He was saying the affectionate word, however, with a far more
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grudging condescension and patronage than he could have shown
if their relative merits and positions had been reversed (which is
invariably the case, all the world over), when Mr. Cruncher,
touching him on the shoulder, hoarsely and unexpectedly
interposed with the following singular question:
「I say! Might I ask the favour? As to whether your name is John
Solomon, or Solomon John?」
The official turned towards him with a sudden distrust. He had
not previously uttered a word.
「Come!」 said Mr. Cruncher. 「Speak out, you know.」 (Which, by
the way, was more than he could do himself) 「John Solomon, or
Solomon John? She calls you Solomon, and she must know, being
your sister. And I know you』re John, you know. Which of the two
goes first? And regarding that name of Pross, likewise. That
warn』t your name over the water.」
「What do you mean?」
「Well, I don』t know all I mean, for I can』t call to mind what your
name was, over the water.」
「No?」
「No. But I』ll swear it was a name of two syllables.」
「Indeed?」
「Yes. T』other one』s was one syllable. I know you. You was a spy-
witness at the Bailey. What, in the name of the Father of Lies, own
father to yourself, was you called at that time?」
「Barsad,」 said another voice, striking in.
「That』s the name for a thousand pound!」 cried Jerry. The
speaker who struck in, was Sydney Carton. He had his hands
behind him under the skirts of his riding-coat, and he stood at Mr.
Cruncher』s elbow as negligently as he might have stood at the Old
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Bailey itself.
「Don』t be alarmed, my dear Miss Pross. I arrived at Mr. Lorry』s,
to his surprise, yesterday evening; we agreed that I would not
present myself elsewhere until all was well, or unless I could be
useful; I present myself here, to beg a little talk with your brother.
I wish you had a better employed brother than Mr. Barsad. I wish
for your sake Mr. Barsad was not a Sheep of the Prisons.」
Sheep was a cant word of the time for a spy, under the gaolers.
The spy, who was pale, turned paler, and asked him how he
dared— 「I』ll tell you,」 said Sydney. 「I lighted on you, Mr. Barsad,
coming out of the prison of the Conciergerie while I was
contemplating the walls, an hour or more ago. You have a face to
be remembered, and I remember faces well. Made curious by
seeing you in that connection, and having a reason, to which you
are no stranger, for associating you with the misfortunes of a
friend now very unfortunate, I walked in your direction. I walked
into the wine-shop here, close after you, and sat near you. I had no
difficulty in deducing from your unreserved conversation, and the
rumour openly going about among your admirers, the nature of
your calling. And gradually, what I had done at random, seemed to
shape itself into a purpose, Mr. Barsad.」
「What purpose?」 the spy asked.
「It would be troublesome, and might be dangerous, to explain
in the street. Could you favour me, in confidence, with some
minutes of your company—at the office of Tellson』s Bank, for
instance?」
「Under a threat?」
「Oh! Did I say that?」
「Then, why should I go there?」
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「Really, Mr. Barsad, I can』t say, if you can』t.」
「Do you mean that you won』t say, sir?」 the spy irresolutely
asked.
「You apprehend me very clearly, Mr. Barsad. I won』t.」
Carton』s negligent recklessness of manner came powerfully in
aid of his quickness and skill, in such a business as he had in his
secret mind, and with such a man as he had to do with. His
practised eye saw it, and made the most of it.
「Now, I told you so,」 said the spy, casting a reproachful look at
his sister; 「if any trouble comes of this, it』s your doing.」
「Come, come, Mr. Barsad!」 exclaimed Sydney. 「Don』t be
ungrateful. But for my great respect for your sister, I might not
have led up so pleasantly to a little proposal that I wish to make for
our mutual satisfaction. Do you go with me to the Bank?」
「I』ll hear what you have got to say. Yes, I』ll go with you.」
「I propose that we first conduct your sister safely to the corner
of her own street. Let me take your arm, Miss Pross. This is not a
good city, at this time, for you to be out in, unprotected; and, as
your escort knows Mr. Barsad, I will invite him to Mr. Lorry』s with
us. Are we ready? Come then!」
Miss Pross recalled soon afterwards, and to the end of her life
remembered, that as she pressed her hands on Sydney』s arm and
looked up in his face, imploring him to do no hurt to Solomon,
there was a braced purpose in the arm and a kind of inspiration in
the eyes, which not only contradicted his light manner, but
changed and raised the man. She was too much occupied then
with fears for the brother who so little deserved her affection, and
with Sydney』s friendly reassurances, adequately to heed what she
observed.
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They left her at the corner of the street, and Carton led the way
to Mr. Lorry』s, which was within a few minutes』 walk. John
Barsad, or Solomon Pross, walked at his side.
Mr. Lorry had just finished his dinner, and was sitting before a
cheery little log or two of fire—perhaps looking into their blaze for
the picture of that younger elderly gentleman from Tellson』s, who
had looked into the red coals at the Royal George at Dover, now a
good many years ago. He turned his head as they entered, and
showed the surprise with which he saw a stranger.
「Miss Pross』s brother, sir,」 said Sydney. 「Mr. Barsad.」
「Barsad?」 repeated the old gentleman, 「Barsad? I have an
association with the name—and with the face.」
「I told you you had a remarkable face, Mr. Barsad,」 observed
Carton, coolly. 「Pray sit down.」
As he took a chair himself, he supplied the link that Mr. Lorry
wanted, by saying to him with a frown, 「Witness at that trial.」 Mr.
Lorry immediately remembered, and regarded his new visitor
with an undisguised look of abhorrence.
「Mr. Barsad has been recognised by Miss Pross as the
affectionate brother you have heard of ,」 said Sydney, 「and has
acknowledged the relationship. I pass to worse news. Darnay has
been arrested again.」
Struck with consternation, the old gentleman exclaimed, 「What
do you tell me! I left him safe and free within these two hours, and
am about to return to him!」
「Arrested for all that. When was it done, Mr. Barsad?」
「Just now, if at all.」
「Mr. Barsad is the best authority possible, sir,」 said Sydney,
「and I have it from Mr. Barsad』s communication to a friend and
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brother Sheep over a bottle of wine, that the arrest has taken
place. He left the messengers at the gate, and saw them admitted
by the porter. There is no earthly doubt that he is retaken.」
Mr. Lorry』s business eye read in the speaker』s face that it was
loss of time to dwell upon the point. Confused, but sensible that
something might depend on his presence of mind, he commanded
himself, and was silently attentive.
「Now, I trust,」 said Sydney to him, 「that the name and
influence of Doctor Manette may stand him in as good stead
tomorrow—you said he would be before the Tribunal again
tomorrow, Mr. Barsad?—」 「Yes; I believe so.」
「—In as good stead tomorrow as today. But it may not be so. I
own to you, I am shaken, Mr. Lorry, by Doctor Manette』s not
having had the power to prevent this arrest.」
「He may not have known of it beforehand,」 said Mr. Lorry.
「But that very circumstance would be alarming, when we
remember how identified he is with his son-in-law.」
「That』s true,」 Mr. Lorry acknowledged, with his troubled hand
at his chin, and his troubled eyes on Carton.
「In short,」 said Sydney, 「this is a desperate time, when
desperate games are played for desperate stakes. Let the Doctor
play the winning game; I will play the losing one. No man』s life
here is worth purchase. Any one carried home by the people
today, may be condemned tomorrow. Now, the stake I have
resolved to play for, in case of the worst, is a friend in the
Conciergerie. And the friend I purpose to myself to win, is Mr.
Barsad.」
「You need have good cards, sir,」 said the spy.
「I』ll run them over. I』ll see what I hold,—Mr. Lorry, you know
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what a brute I am; I wish you』d give me a little brandy.」
It was put before him, and he drank off a glassful—drank off
another glassful—pushed the bottle thoughtfully away.
「Mr. Barsad,」 he went on, in the tone of one who really was
looking over a hand at cards: 「Sheep of the prisons, emissary of
Republican committees, now turnkey, now prisoner, always spy
and secret informer, so much the more valuable here for being
English that an Englishman is less open to suspicion of
subornation in those characters than a Frenchman, represents
himself to his employers under a false name. That』s a very good
card. Mr. Barsad, now in the employ of the republican French
government, was formerly in the employ of the aristocratic
English government, the enemy of France and freedom. That』s an
excellent card. Inference clear as day in this region of suspicion,
that Mr. Barsad, still in the pay of the aristocratic English
government, is the spy of Pitt, the treacherous foe of the Republic
crouching in its bosom, the English traitor and agent of all
mischief so much spoken of and so difficult to find. That』s a card
not to be beaten. Have you followed my hand, Mr. Barsad?」
「Not to understand your play,」 returned the spy, somewhat
uneasily.
「I play my Ace, Denunciation of Mr. Barsad to the nearest
Section Committee. Look over your hand, Mr. Barsad, and see
what you have. Don』t hurry.」
He drew the bottle near, poured out another glassful of brandy,
and drank it off. He saw that the spy was fearful of his drinking
himself into a fit state for the immediate denunciation of him.
Seeing it, he poured out and drank another glassful.
「Look over your hand carefully, Mr. Barsad. Take time.」
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It was a poorer hand than he suspected. Mr. Barsad saw losing
cards in it that Sydney Carton knew nothing of. Thrown out of his
honourable employment in England, through too much
unsuccessful hard swearing there—not because he was not
wanted there; our English reasons for vaunting our superiority to
secrecy and spies are of very modern date—he knew that he had
crossed the Channel, and accepted service in France: first, as a
tempter and an eavesdropper among his own countrymen there:
gradually, as a tempter and an eavesdropper among the natives.
He knew that under the overthrown government he had been a
spy upon Saint Antoine and Defarge』s wine-shop; had received
from the watchful police such heads of information concerning
Doctor Manette』s imprisonment, release, and history, as should
serve him for an introduction to familiar conversation with the
Defarges; and tried them on Madame Defarge, and had broken
down with them signally. He always remembered with fear and
trembling, that that terrible woman had knitted when he talked
with her, and had looked ominously at him as her fingers moved.
He had since seen her, in the Section of Saint Antoine, over and
over again produce her knitted registers, and denounce people
whose lives the guillotine then surely swallowed up. He knew, as
every one employed as he was did, that he was never safe; that
flight was impossible; that he was tied fast under the shadow of
the axe; and that in spite of his utmost tergiversation and
treachery in furtherance of the reigning terror, a word might bring
it down upon him. Once denounced, and on such grave grounds as
had just now been suggested to his mind, he foresaw that the
dreadful woman of whose unrelenting character he had seen many
proofs, would produce against him that fatal register, and would
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quash his last chance of life. Besides that all secret men are men
soon terrified, here were surely cards enough of one black suit, to
justify the holder in growing rather livid as he turned them over.
「You scarcely seem to like your hand,」 said Sydney, with the
greatest composure. 「Do you play?」
「I think, sir,」 said the spy, in the meanest manner, as he turned
to Mr. Lorry, 「I may appeal to a gentleman of your years and
benevolence, to put it to this other gentleman, so much your
junior, whether he can under any circumstances reconcile it to his
station to play that Ace of which he has spoken. I admit that I am a
spy, and that it is considered a discreditable station—though it
must be filled by somebody; but this gentleman is no spy, and why
should he so demean himself as to make himself one?」
「I play my Ace, Mr. Barsad,」 said Carton, taking the answer on
himself, and looking at his watch, 「without any scruple, in a very
few minutes.」
「I should have hoped, gentlemen both,」 said the spy, always
striving to hook Mr. Lorry into the discussion, 「that your respect
for my sister—」 「I could not better testify my respect for your
sister than by finally relieving her of her brother,」 said Sydney
Carton.
「You think not, sir?」
「I have thoroughly made up my mind about it.」
The smooth manner of the spy, curiously in dissonance with his
ostentatiously rough dress, and probably with his usual
demeanour, received such a check from the inscrutability of
Carton,—who was a mystery to wiser and honester men than he,—
that it faltered here and failed him. While he was at a loss, Carton
said, resuming his former air of contemplating cards:
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「And indeed, now I think again, I have a strong impression that
I have another good card here, not yet enumerated. That friend
and fellow-Sheep, who spoke of himself as pasturing in the
country prisons; who was he?」
「French. You don』t know him,」 said the spy. quickly.
「French, eh?」 replied Carton, musing, and not appearing to
notice him at all, though he echoed his word. 「Well, he may be.」
「Is, I assure you,」 said the spy; 「though it』s not important.」
「Though it』s not important,」 repeated Carton, in the same
mechanical way—「though it』s not important—No, it』s not
important. No. Yet I know the face.」
「I think not. I am sure not. It can』t be,」 said the spy.
「It—can』t—be,」 muttered Sydney Carton, retrospectively, and
filling his glass (which fortunately was a small one) again. 「Can』t—
be. Spoke good French. Yet like a foreigner, I thought.」
「Provincial,」 said the spy.
「No. Foreign!」 cried Carton, striking his open hand on the
table, as a light broke clearly on his mind. 「Cly! Disguised, but the
same man. We had that man before us at the Old Bailey.」
「Now, there you are hasty, sir,」 said Barsad, with a smile that
gave his aquiline nose an extra inclination to one side; 「there you
really give me an advantage over you. Cly (who I will unreservedly
admit, at this distance of time, was a partner of mine) has been
dead several years. I attended him in his last illness. He was
buried in London, at the church of Saint Pancras-in-the-Fields.
His unpopularity with the blackguard multitude at the moment
prevented my following his remains, but I helped to lay him in his
coffin.」
Here, Mr. Lorry became aware, from where he sat, of a most
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remarkable goblin shadow on the wall. Tracing it to its source, he
discovered it to be caused by a sudden extraordinary rising and
stiffening of all the risen and stiff hair on Mr. Cruncher』s head.
「Let us be reasonable,」 said the spy, 「and let us be fair. To
show you how mistaken you are, and what an unfounded
assumption yours is, I will lay before you a certificate of Cly』s
burial, which I happen to have carried in my pocket-book,」 with a
hurried hand he produced and opened it, 「ever since. There it is.
Oh, look at it, look at it! You may take it in your hand; it』s no
forgery.」
Here, Mr. Lorry perceived the reflection on the wall to elongate,
and Mr. Cruncher rose and stepped forward. His hair could not
have been more violently on end, if it had been that moment
dressed by the Cow with the crumpled horn in the house that Jack
built.
Unseen by the spy, Mr. Cruncher stood at his side, and touched
him on the shoulder like a ghostly bailiff.
「That there Roger Cly, master,」 said Mr. Cruncher, with a
taciturn and iron-bound visage. 「So you put him in his coffin?」
「I did.」
「Who took him out of it?」
Barsad leaned back in his chair, and stammered. 「What do you
mean?」
「I mean,」 said Mr. Cruncher, 「that he warn』t never in it. No!
Not he! I』ll have my head took off, if he was ever in it.」
The spy looked around at the two gentlemen; they both looked
in unspeakable astonishment at Jerry.
「I tell you,」 said Jerry, 「that you buried paving-stones and
earth in that there coffin. Don』t go and tell me that you buried Cly.
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It was a take-in. Me and two more knows it.」
「How do you know it?」
「What』s that to you? Ecod!」 growled Mr. Cruncher, 「it』s you I
have got an old grudge agin, is it, with your shameful impositions
upon tradesmen! I』d catch hold of your throat and choke you for
half a guinea.」
Sydney Carton, who, with Mr. Lorry, had been lost in
amazement at this turn of the business, here requested Mr.
Cruncher to moderate and explain himself.
「At another time, sir,」 he returned, evasively, 「the present time
is ill-conwenient for explainin』. What I stand to, is that he knows
well wot that there Cly was never in that there coffin. Let him say
he was, in so much as a word of one syllable, and I』ll either catch
hold of his throat and choke him for half a guinea」; Mr. Cruncher
dwelt upon this as quite a liberal offer; 「or I』ll out and announce
him.」
「Humph! I see one thing,」 said Carton. 「I hold another card,
Mr. Barsad. Impossible, here in raging Paris, with Suspicion filling
the air, for you to outlive denunciation, when you are in
communication with another aristocratic spy of the same
antecedents as yourself, who, moreover, has the mystery about
him of having feigned death and come to life again! A plot in the
prisons, of the foreigner against the Republic. A strong card—a
certain Guillotine card! Do you play?」
「No!」 returned the spy. 「I throw up. I confess that we were so
unpopular with the outrageous mob, that I only got away from
England at the risk of being ducked to death, and that Cly was so
ferreted up and down, that he never would have got away at all
but for that sham. Though how this man knows it was a sham, is a
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wonder of wonders to me.」
「Never you trouble your head about this man,」 retorted the
contentious Mr. Cruncher; 「you』ll have trouble enough with giving
your attention to that gentleman. And look here! Once more!」—
Mr. Cruncher could not be restrained from making rather an
ostentatious parade of his liberality—「I』d catch hold of your throat
and choke you for half a guinea.」
The Sheep of the prisons turned from him to Sydney Carton,
and said, with more decision, 「It has come to a point. I go on duty
soon, and can』t overstay my time. You told me you had a proposal;
what is it? Now, it is of no use asking too much of me. Ask me to
do anything in my office, putting my head in great extra danger,
and I had better trust my life to the chances of a refusal than the
chances of consent. In short, I should make that choice. You talk of
desperation. We are all desperate here. Remember! I may
denounce you if I think proper, and I can swear my way through
stone walls, and so can others. Now, what do you want with me?」
「Not very much. You are a turnkey at the Conciergerie?」
「I tell you once for all, there is no such thing as an escape
possible,」 said the spy firmly.
「Why need you tell me what I have not asked? You are a
turnkey at the Conciergerie?」
「I am sometimes.」
「You can be when you choose?」
「I can pass in and out when I choose.」
Sydney Carton filled another glass with brandy, poured it
slowly out upon the hearth, and watched it as it dropped. It being
all spent, he said, rising:
「So far, we have spoken before these two, because it was as well
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that the merits of the cards should not rest solely between you and
me. Come into the dark room here, and let us have one final word
alone.」
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Chapter XXXIX
THE GAME MADE
W hile Sydney Carton and the Sheep of the prisons were
in the adjoining dark room, speaking so low that not a
sound was heard, Mr. Lorry looked at Jerry in
considerable doubt and mistrust. That honest tradesman』s
manner of receiving the look, did not inspire confidence; he
changed the leg on which he rested, as often as if he had fifty of
those limbs, and were trying them all; he examined his finger-nails
with a very questionable closeness of attention; and whenever Mr.
Lorry』s eye caught his, he was taken with that peculiar kind of
short cough requiring the hollow of a hand before it, which is
seldom, if ever, known to be an infirmity attendant on perfect
openness of character.
「Jerry,」 said Mr. Lorry. 「Come here.」
Mr. Cruncher came forward sideways, with one of his shoulders
in advance of him.
「What have you been, besides a messenger?」
After some cogitation, accompanied with an intent look at his
patron, Mr. Cruncher conceived the luminous idea of replying,
「Agricultooral character.」
「My mind misgives me much,」 said Mr. Lorry, angrily shaking
a forefinger at him, 「that you have used the respectable and great
house of Tellson』s as a blind, and that you have had an unlawful
occupation of an infamous description. If you have, don』t expect
me to befriend you when you get back to England. If you have,
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don』t expect me to keep your secret. Tellson』s shall not be imposed
upon.」
「I hope, sir,」 pleaded the abashed Mr. Cruncher, 「that a
gentleman like yourself wot I』ve had the honour of odd jobbing till
I』m grey at it, would think twice about harming of me, even if it
wos so—I don』t say it is, but even if it wos. And which it is to be
took into account that if it wos, it wouldn』t, even then, be all o』 one
side. There』d be two sides to it. There might be medical doctors at
the present hour, a picking up their guineas where a honest
tradesman don』t pick up his fardens—fardens! no, nor yet his half
fardens—half fardens! no, nor yet his quarter—a banking away
like smoke at Tellson』s, and a cocking their medical eyes at that
tradesman on the sly, going in and out to their own carriages—ah!
equally like smoke, if not more so. Well, that 』ud be imposing too,
on Tellson』s. For you cannot sarse the goose and not the gander.
And here』s Mrs. Cruncher, or leastways wos in the Old England
times, and would be tomorrow, if cause given, a floppin agin the
business to that degree as is ruinating—stark ruinating! Whereas
them medical doctors』 wives don』t flop—catch 』em at it! Or, if they
flop, their floppin goes in favour of more patients, and how can
you rightly have one without the t』other? Then, wot with
undertakers, and wot with parish clerks, and wot with sextons,
and wot with private watchmen (all awaricious and all in it), a man
wouldn』t get much by it, even if it wos so. And wot little man did
get, would never prosper with him, Mr. Lorry. He』d never have no
good of it; he』d want all along to be out of the line, if he could see
his way out, being once in—even if it wos so.」
「Ugh!」 cried Mr. Lorry, rather relenting, nevertheless. 「I am
shocked at the sight of you.」
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「Now, what I would humbly offer to you, sir,」 pursued Mr.
Cruncher, 「even if it wos so, which I don』t say it is—」 「Don』t
prevaricate,」 said Mr. Lorry.
「No, I will not, sir,」 returned Mr. Cruncher, as if nothing were
further from his thoughts or practice—「which I don』t say it is—
wot I would humbly offer to you, sir, would be this. Upon that
there stool, at that there Bar, sets that there boy of mine, brought
up and growed up to be a man, wot will errand you, message you,
general-light-job you, till your heels is where your head is, if such
should be your wishes. If it was so, which I still don』t say it is (for I
will not prewaricate to you, sir) let that there boy keep his father』s
place, and take care of his mother; don』t blow upon that boy』s
father—do not do it, sir—and let that father go into the line of the
reg』lar diggin』, and make amends for what he would have undug—
if it wos so—by diggin』 of 』em in with a will, and with conwictions
respectin』 the futur』 keepin』 of 』em safe. That, Mr. Lorry,」 said Mr.
Cruncher, wiping his forehead with his arm, as an announcement
that he had arrived at the peroration of his discourse, 「is wot I
would respectfully offer to you, sir. A man don』t see all this here a
goin』 on dreadful round him, in the way of Subjects without heads,
dear me, plentiful enough fur to bring the price down to porterage
and hardly that, without havin』 his serious thoughts of things. And
these here would be mine, if it wos so, entreatin』 of you fur to bear
in mind that wot I said just now, I up and said in the good cause
when I might have kep』 it back.」
「That at least is true,」 said Mr. Lorry. 「Say no more now. It
may be that I shall yet stand your friend, if you deserve it, and
repent in action—not in words. I want no more words.」
Mr. Cruncher knuckled his forehead, as Sydney Carton and the
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spy returned from the dark room. 「Adieu, Mr. Barsad,」 said the
former; 「our arrangement thus made, you have nothing to fear
from me.」
He sat down in a chair on the hearth, over against Mr. Lorry.
When they were alone, Mr. Lorry asked him what he had done?
「Not much. If it should go ill with the prisoner, I have ensured
access to him, once.」
Mr. Lorry』s countenance fell.
「It is all I could do,」 said Carton. 「To propose too much would
be to put this man』s head under the axe, and, as he himself said,
nothing worse could happen to him if he were denounced. It was
obviously the weakness of the position. There is no help for it.」
「But access to him,」 said Mr. Lorry, 「if it should go ill before
the Tribunal, will not save him.」
「I never said it would.」
Mr. Lorry』s eyes gradually sought the fire; his sympathy with
his darling, and the heavy disappointment of this second arrest,
gradually weakened them; he was an old man now, overborne
with anxiety of late, and his tears fell.
「You are a good man and a true friend,」 said Carton, in an
altered voice. 「Forgive me if I notice that you are affected. I could
not see my father weep, and sit by, careless. And I could not
respect your sorrow more, if you were my father. You are free
from that misfortune, however.」
Though he said the last words, with a slip into his usual
manner, there was a true feeling and respect both in his tone and
in his touch, that Mr. Lorry, who had never seen the better side of
him, was wholly unprepared for. He gave him his hand, and
Carton gently pressed it.
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「To return to poor Darnay,」 said Carton. 「Don』t tell Her of this
interview, or this arrangement. It would not enable Her to go to
see him. She might think it was contrived, in case of the worst, to
convey to him the means of anticipating the sentence.」
Mr. Lorry had not thought of that, and he looked quickly at
Carton to see if it were in his mind. It seemed to be; he returned
the look, and evidently understood it.
「She might think a thousand things,」 Carton said, 「and any of
them would only add to her trouble. Don』t speak of me to her. As I
said to you when I first came, I had better not see her. I can put
my hand out, to do any little helpful work for her that my hand can
find to do, without that. You are going to her, I hope? She must be
very desolate tonight.」
「I am going now, directly.」
「I am glad of that. She has such a strong attachment to you and
reliance on you. How does she look?」
「Anxious and unhappy, but very beautiful.」
「Ah!」
It was a long, grieving sound, like a sigh—almost like a sob. It
attracted Mr. Lorry』s eyes to Carton』s face, which was turned to
the fire. A light, or a shade (the old gentleman could not have said
which), passed from it as swiftly as a change will sweep over a
hillside on a wild bright day, and he lifted his foot to put back one
of the little flaming logs, which was tumbling forward. He wore the
white riding-coat and top-boots, then in vogue, and the light of the
fire touching their light surfaces made him look very pale, with his
long brown hair, all untrimmed, hanging loose about him. His
indifference to fire was sufficiently remarkable to elicit a word of
remonstrance from Mr. Lorry: his boot was still upon the hot
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embers of the flaming log, when it had broken under the weight of
his foot.
「I forgot it,」 he said.
Mr. Lorry』s eyes were again attracted to his face. Taking note of
the wasted air which clouded the naturally handsome features,
and having the expression of prisoners』 faces fresh in his mind, he
was strongly reminded of that expression.
「And your duties here have drawn to an end, sir?」 said Carton,
turning to him.
「Yes. As I was telling you last night when Lucie came in so
unexpectedly, I have at length done all that I can do here. I hoped
to have left them in perfect safety, and then to have quitted Paris. I
have my Leave to Pass. I was ready to go.」
They were both silent.
「Yours is a long life to look back upon, sir?」 said Carton,
wistfully.
「I am in my seventy-eighth year.」
「You have been useful all your life; steadily and constantly
occupied; trusted, respected, and looked up to?」
「I have been a man of business, ever since I have been a man.
Indeed, I may say that I was a man of business when a boy.」
「See what a place you fill at seventy-eight. How many people
will miss you when you leave it empty!」
「A solitary old bachelor,」 answered Mr. Lorry, shaking his
head. 「There is nobody to weep for me.」
「How can you say that! Wouldn』t She weep for you? Wouldn』t
her child?」
「Yes, yes, thank God. I didn』t quite mean what I said.」
「It is a thing to thank God for; is it not?」
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「Surely, surely.」
「If you could say, with truth, to your own solitary heart, tonight,
『I have secured to myself the love and attachment, the gratitude or
respect, of no human creature; I have won myself a tender place in
no regard; I have done nothing good or serviceable to be
remembered by!』 your seventy-eight years would be seventy-eight
heavy curses; would they not?」
「You say truly, Mr. Carton; I think they would be.」
Sydney turned his eyes again upon the fire, and, after a silence
of a few moments, said:
「I should like to ask you:—Does your childhood seem far off?
Do the days when you sat at your mother』s knee, seem days of very
long ago?」
Responding to his softened manner, Mr. Lorry answered:
「Twenty years back, yes; at this time of my life, no. For, as I
draw closer and closer to the end, I travel in the circle, nearer and
nearer to the beginning. It seems to be one of the kind smoothings
and preparings of the way. My heart is touched now, by many
remembrances that have long fallen asleep, of my pretty young
mother (and I so old!), and by many associations of the days when
what we call the World was not so real with me, and my faults
were not confirmed in me.」
「I understand the feeling!」 exclaimed Carton, with a bright
flush. 「And you are the better for it?」
「I hope so.」
Carton terminated the conversation here, by rising to help him
on with his outer coat. 「But you,」 said Mr. Lorry, reverting to the
theme, 「you are young.」
「Yes,」 said Carton. 「I am not old, but my young way was never
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the way to age. Enough of me.」
「And of me, I am sure,」 said Mr. Lorry. 「Are you going out?」
「I』ll walk with you to her gate. You know my vagabond and
restless habits. If I should prowl about the streets a long time,
don』t be uneasy; I shall reappear in the morning. You go to the
Court tomorrow?」
「Yes, unhappily.」
「I shall be there, but only as one of the crowd. My Spy will find
a place for me. Take my arm, sir.」
Mr. Lorry did so, and they went down-stairs and out in the
streets. A few minutes brought them to Mr. Lorry』s destination.
Carton left him there; but lingered at a little distance, and turned
back to the gate again when it was shut, and touched it. He had
heard of her going to the prison every day. 「She came out here,」
he said, looking about him, 「turned this way, must have trod on
these stones often. Let me follow in her steps.」
It was ten o』clock at night when he stood before the prison of La
Force, where she had stood hundreds of times. A little wood-
sawyer, having closed his shop, was smoking his pipe at his shop-
door.
「Good night, citizen,」 said Sydney Carton, pausing in going by;
for the man eyed him inquisitively.
「Good night, citizen.」
「How goes the Republic?」
「You mean the Guillotine. Not ill. Sixty-three today. We shall
mount to a hundred soon. Samson and his men complain
sometimes, of being exhausted. Ha, ha, ha! He is so droll, that
Samson. Such a barber!」
「Do you often go to see him—」 「Shave? Always. Every day.
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What a barber! You have seen him at work?」
「Never.」
「Go and see him when he has a good batch. Figure this to
yourself, citizen; he shaved the sixty-three today, in less than two
pipes. Less than two pipes. Word of honour!」
As the grinning little man held out the pipe he was smoking to
explain how he timed the execution, Carton was so sensible of a
rising desire to strike the life out of him, that he turned away.
「But you are not English,」 said the wood-sawyer, 「though you
wear English dress?」
「Yes,」 said Carton, pausing again, and answering over his
shoulder.
「You speak like a Frenchman.」
「I am an old student here.」
「Aha, a perfect Frenchman! Good night, Englishman.」
「Good night, citizen.」
「But go and see that droll dog,」 the little man persisted, calling
after him. 「And take a pipe with you!」
Sydney had not gone far out of sight, when he stopped in the
middle of the street under a glimmering lamp, and wrote with his
pencil on a scrap of paper. Then, traversing with the decided step
of one who remembered the way well, several dark and dirty
streets—much dirtier than usual, for the best public thoroughfares
remained uncleansed in those times of terror—he stopped at a
chemist』s shop, which the owner was closing with his own hands.
A small, dim, crooked shop, kept in a tortuous, up-hill
thoroughfare, by a small, dim, crooked man.
Giving this citizen, too, good night, as he confronted him at his
counter, he laid the scrap of paper before him. 「Whew」; the
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chemist whistled softly, as he read it. 「Hi! hi, hi!」
Sydney Carton took no heed, and the chemist said:
「For you, citizen?」
「For me.」
「You will be careful to keep them separate, citizen. You know
the consequences of mixing them?」
「Perfectly.」
Certain small packets were made and given to him. He put
them, one by one, in the breast of his inner coat, counted out the
money for them, and deliberately left the shop. 「There is nothing
more to do,」 said he, glancing upward at the moon, 「until
tomorrow. I can』t sleep.」
It was a reckless manner, the manner in which he said these
words aloud under the fast-sailing clouds. nor was it more
expressive of negligence than defiance. It was the settled manner
of a tired man, who had wandered and struggled and got lost, but
who at length struck into his road and saw its end.
Long ago, when he had been famous among his earliest
competitors as a youth of great promise, he had followed his father
to the grave. His mother had died, years before. These solemn
words, which had been read at his father』s grave, arose in his mind
as he went down the dark streets, among the heavy shadows, with
the moon and the clouds sailing on high above him. 「I am the
resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and
believeth in me, shall never die.」
In a city dominated by the axe, alone at night, with natural
sorrow rising in him for the sixty-three who had been that day put
to death, and for tomorrow』s victims then awaiting their doom in
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the prisons, and still of tomorrow』s and tomorrow』s, the chain of
association that brought the words home, like a rusty old ship』s
anchor from the deep, might have been easily found. He did not
seek it, but repeated them and went on.
With a solemn interest in the lighted windows where the people
were going to rest, forgetful through a few calm hours of the
horrors surrounding them; in the towers of the churches, where
no prayers were said, for the popular revulsion had even travelled
that length of self-destruction from years of priestly impostors,
plunderers, and profligates; in the distant burial-places reserved,
as they wrote upon the gates, for Eternal Sleep; in the abounding
gaols; and in the streets along which the sixties rolled to a death
which had become so common and material, that no sorrowful
story of a haunting Spirit ever arose among the people out of all
the working of the Guillotine; with a solemn interest in the whole
life and death of the city settling down to its short nightly pause in
fury; Sydney Carton crossed the Seine again for the lighter streets.
Few coaches were abroad, for riders in coaches were liable to
be suspected, and gentility hid his head in red nightcaps, and put
on heavy shoes, and trudged. But. the theatres were all well filled,
and the people poured cheerfully out as he passed, and went
chatting home. At one of the theatre doors, there was a little girl
with a mother, looking for a way across the street through the
mud. He carried the child over, and before the timid arm was
loosed from his neck asked her for a kiss.
「I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and
whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.」
Now, that the streets were quiet and the night wore on, the
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words were in the echoes of his feet, and were in the air. Perfectly
calm and steady, he sometimes repeated them to himself as he
walked; but, he heard them always.
The night wore out, and, as he stood upon the bridge listening
to the water as it splashed the river-walls of the Island of Paris,
where the picturesque confusion of houses and cathedral shone
bright in the light of the moon, the day came coldly, looking like a
dead face out of the sky. Then, the night, with the moon and the
stars, turned pale and died, and for a little while it seemed as if
Creation were delivered over to Death』s dominion.
But the glorious sun, rising, seemed to strike those words, that
burden of the night, straight and warm to his heart in its long
bright rays. And looking along them, with reverently shaded eyes,
a bridge of light appeared to span the air between him and the
sun, while the river sparkled under it.
The strong tide, so swift, so deep, and certain, was like a
congenial friend, in the morning stillness. He walked by the
stream, far from the houses, and in the light and warmth of the
sun fell asleep on the bank. When he awoke and was afoot again,
he lingered there yet a little longer, watching an eddy that turned
and turned purposeless, until the stream absorbed it, and carried
it on to the sea.—「Like me!」
A trading-boat, with a sail of the softened colour of a dead leaf,
then glided into his view, floated by him, and died away. As its
silent track in the water disappeared, the prayer that had broken
up out of his heart for a merciful consideration of all his poor
blindness and errors, ended in the words, 「I am the resurrection
and the life.」
Mr. Lorry was already out when he got back, and it was easy to
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surmise where the good old man was gone. Sydney Carton drank
nothing but a little coffee, ate some bread, and, having washed and
changed to refresh himself, went out to the place of trial.
The court was all astir and a-buzz, when the black sheep—
whom many fell away from in dread—pressed him into an obscure
corner among the crowd. Mr. Lorry was there, and Doctor
Manette was there. She was there, sitting beside her father.
When her husband was brought in, she turned a look upon him,
so sustaining, so encouraging, so full of admiring love, and pitying
tenderness, yet so courageous for his sake, that it called the
healthy blood into his face, brightened his glance, and animated
his heart. If there had been any eyes to notice the influence of her
look, on Sydney Carton, it would have been seen to be the same
influence exactly.
Before that unjust Tribunal, there was little or no order of
procedure, ensuring to any accused person any reasonable
hearing. There could have been no such Revolution, if all laws,
forms, and ceremonies, had not first been so monstrously abused,
that the suicidal vengeance of the Revolution was to scatter them
all to the winds.
Every eye was turned to the jury. The same determined patriots
and good republicans as yesterday and the day before, and
tomorrow and the day after. Eager and prominent among them,
one man with a craving face, and his fingers perpetually hovering
about his lips, whose appearance gave great satisfaction to the
spectators. A life-thirsting, cannibal-looking, bloody-minded
juryman, the Jacques Three of Saint Antoine. The whole jury, as a
jury of dogs empanelled to try the deer.
Every eye then turned to the five judges and the public
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prosecutor. No favourable leaning in that quarter today. A fell,
uncompromising, murderous business-meaning there. Every eye
then sought some other eye in the crowd, and gleamed at it
approvingly; and heads nodded at one another before bending
forward with a strained attention.
Charles Evremonde, called Darnay. Released yesterday.
Reaccused and retaken yesterday. Indictment delivered to him
last night. Suspected and Denounced enemy of the Republic,
Aristocrat, one of a family of tyrants, one of a race proscribed, for
that they had used their abolished privileges to the infamous
oppression of the people. Charles Evremonde, called Darnay, in
right of such proscription, absolutely Dead in Law.
To this effect, in as few or fewer words, the Public Prosecutor.
The President asked, was the Accused openly denounced or
secretly?
「Openly, President.」
「By whom?」
「Three voices. Ernest Defarge, wine vendor of Saint Antoine.」
「Good.」
「Therese Defarge, his wife.」
「Good.」
「Alexandre Manette, physician.」
A great uproar took place in the court, and in the midst of it,
Doctor Manette was seen, pale and trembling, standing where he
had been seated.
「President, I indignantly protest to you that this is a forgery
and a fraud. You know the accused to be the husband of my
daughter. My daughter, and those dear to her, are far dearer to me
than my life. Who and where is the false conspirator who says that
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I denounce the husband of my child?」
「Citizen Manette, be tranquil. To fail in submission of the
authority of the Tribunal would be to put yourself out of Law. As
to what is dearer to you than life. nothing can be so dear to a good
citizen as the Republic.」
Loud acclamations hailed this rebuke. The President rang his
bell, and with warmth resumed.
「If the Republic should demand of you the sacrifice of your
child herself, you would have no duty but to sacrifice her. Listen to
what is to follow. In the meanwhile, be silent!」
Frantic acclamations were again raised. Doctor Manette sat
down, with his eyes looking around, and his lips trembling; his
daughter drew closer to him. The craving man on the jury rubbed
his hands together, and restored the usual hand to his mouth.
Defarge was produced, when the court was quiet enough to
admit of his being heard, and rapidly expounded the story of the
imprisonment, and of his having been a mere boy in the Doctor』s
service, and of the release, and of the state of the prisoner when
released and delivered to him. This short examination followed.
for the court was quick with its work.
「You did good service at the taking of the Bastille, citizen?」
「I believe so.」
Here an excited woman screeched from the crowd: 「You were
one of the best patriots there. Why not say so? You were a
cannonier that day there, and you were among the first to enter
the accursed fortress when it fell. Patriots, I speak the truth!」
It was The Vengeance who, amidst the warm commendations of
the audience, thus assisted the proceedings. The President rang
his bell; but, The Vengeance, warming with encouragement,
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shrieked, 「I defy that bell!」 wherein she was likewise much
commended.
「Inform the Tribunal of what you did that day. within the
Bastille, citizen.」
「I knew,」 said Defarge, looking down at his wife, who stood at
the bottom of the steps on which he was raised, looking steadily up
at him; 「I knew that this prisoner, of whom I speak, had been
confined in a cell known as One Hundred and Five, North Tower.
I knew it from himself. He knew himself by no other name than
One Hundred and Five, North Tower, when he made shoes under
my care. As I serve my gun that day, I resolve, when the place
shall fall, to examine that cell. It falls. I mount to the cell, with a
fellow-citizen who is one of the Jury, directed by a gaoler. I
examine it, very closely. In a hole in the chimney, where a stone
has been worked out and replaced, I find a written paper. That is
that written paper. I have made it my business to examine some
specimens of the writing of Doctor Manette. This is the writing of
Doctor Manette. I confide this paper, in the writing of Doctor
Manette, to the hands of the President.」
「Let it be read.」
In the dead silence and stillness—the prisoner under trial
looking lovingly at his wife, his wife only looking from him to look
with solicitude at her father, Doctor Manette keeping his eyes
fixed on the reader, Madame Defarge never taking hers from the
prisoner, Defarge never taking his from his feasting wife, and all
the other eyes there intent upon the Doctor, who saw none of
them—the paper was read as follows.
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Chapter XL
THE SUBSTANCE OF THE SHADOW
「I Alexandre Manette, unfortunate physician, native of
Beauvais, and afterwards resident in Paris—write this
melancholy paper in my doleful cell in the Bastille,
during the last month of the year 1767. I write it at stolen intervals,
under every difficulty. I design to secrete it in the wall of the
chimney, where I have slowly and laboriously made a place of
concealment for it. Some pitying hand may find it there, when I
and my sorrows are dust.
「These words are formed by the rusty iron point with which I
write with difficulty in scrapings of soot and charcoal from the
chimney, mixed with blood, in the last month of the tenth year of
my captivity. Hope has quite departed from my breast. I know
from terrible warnings I have noted in myself that my reason will
not long remain unimpaired, but I solemnly declare that I am at
this time in the possession of my right mind—that my memory is
exact and circumstantial—and that I write the truth as I shall
answer for these my last recorded words, whether they be ever
read by men or not, at the Eternal Judgment-seat.
「One cloudy moonlight night, in the third week of December (I
think the twenty-second of the month) in the year 1757, I was
walking on a retired part of the quay by the Seine for the
refreshment of the frosty air, at an hour』s distance from my place
of residence in the Street of the School of Medicine, when a
carriage came along behind me, driven very fast. As I stood aside
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to let that carriage pass, apprehensive that it might otherwise run
me down, a head was put out at the window, and a voice called to
the driver to stop.
「The carriage stopped as soon as the driver could rein in his
horses, and the same voice called to me by my name. I answered.
The carriage was then so far in advance of me that two gentlemen
had time to open the door and alight before I came up with it. I
observed that they were both wrapped in cloaks, and appeared to
conceal themselves. As they stood side by side near the carriage
door, I also observed that they both looked of about my own age,
or rather younger, and that they were greatly alike, in stature,
manner, voice, and (as far as I could see) face too.
「『You are Doctor Manette?』 said one.
「『I am.』 「『Doctor Manette, formerly of Beauvais,』 said the other;
『the young physician, originally an expert surgeon, who within the
last year or two has made a rising reputation in Paris?』
「『Gentlemen,』 I returned, 『I am that Doctor Manette of whom you
speak so graciously.』 「『We have been to your residence,』 said the
first, 『and not being so fortunate as to find you there, and being
informed that you were probably walking in this direction, we
followed, in the hope of overtaking you. Will you please to enter
the carriage?』 「The manner of both was imperious, and they both
moved, as these words were spoken, so as to place me between
themselves and the carriage door. They were armed. I was not.
「『Gentlemen,』 said I, 『pardon me; but I usually inquire who does
me the honour to seek my assistance, and what is the nature of the
case to which I am summoned.』 「The reply to this was made by
him who had spoken second. 『Doctor, your clients are people of
condition. As to the nature of the case, our confidence in your skill
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assures us that you will ascertain it for yourself better than we can
describe it. Enough. Will you please enter the carriage?』 「I could
do nothing but comply, and I entered it in silence. They both
entered after me—the last springing in, after putting up the steps.
The carriage turned about, and drove on at its former speed.
「I repeat this conversation exactly as it occurred. I have no
doubt that it is, word for word, the same. I describe everything
exactly as it took place, constraining my mind not to wander from
the task. When I make the broken marks that follow here, I leave
off for the time, and put my paper in its hiding place.
「The carriage left the streets behind, passed the North Barrier,
and emerged upon the country road. At two-thirds of a league
from the Barrier—I did not estimate the distance at that time, but
afterwards when I traversed it—it struck out of the main avenue,
and presently stopped at a solitary house. We all three alighted,
and walked, by a damp soft footpath in a garden where a
neglected fountain had overflowed, to the door of the house. It was
not opened immediately, in answer to the ringing of the bell, and
one of my two conductors struck the man who opened it, with his
heavy riding-glove, across the face.
「There was nothing in this action to attract my particular
attention, for I had seen common people struck more commonly
than dogs. But, the other of the two, being angry likewise, struck
the man in like manner with his arm; the look and bearing of the
brothers were then so exactly alike, that I then first perceived
them to be twin brothers.
「From the time of our alighting at the outer gate (which we
found locked, and which one of the brothers had opened to admit
us, and had relocked), I had heard cries proceeding from an upper
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chamber. I was conducted to this chamber straight, the cries
growing louder as we ascended the stairs, and I found a patient in
a high fever of the brain, lying on a bed.
「The patient was a woman of great beauty, and young;
assuredly not much past twenty. Her hair was torn and ragged,
and her arms were bound to her sides with sashes and
handkerchiefs. I noticed that these bonds were all portions of a
gentleman』s dress. On one of them, which was a fringed scarf for a
dress ceremony, I saw the armorial bearings of a Noble, and the
letter E.
「I saw this, within the first minute of my contemplation of the
patient; for, in her restless strivings she had turned over on her
face on the edge of the bed, had drawn the end of the scarf into
her mouth, and was in danger of suffocation. My first act was to
put out my hand to relieve her breathing; and in moving the scarf
aside, the embroidery in the corner caught my sight.
「I turned her gently over, placed my hands upon her breast to
calm her and keep her down, and looked into her face. Her eyes
were dilated and wild, and she constantly uttered piercing shrieks,
and repeated the words, 『My husband, my father, and my brother!』
and then counted up to twelve, and said, 『Hush!』 For an instant,
and no more, she would pause to listen, and then the piercing
shrieks would begin again, and she would repeat the cry, 『My
husband, my father, and my brother!』 and would count up to
twelve, and say 『Hush!』 There was no variation in the order, or the
manner. There was no cessation, but the regular moment』s pause,
in the utterance of these sounds.
「『How long,』 I asked, 『has this lasted?』
「To distinguish the brothers, I will call them the elder and the
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younger; by the elder, I mean, him who exercised the most
authority. It was the elder who replied, 『Since about this hour last
night.』
「『She has a husband, a father, and a brother?』
「『A brother.』
「『I do not address her brother?』
「He answered with great contempt, 『No.』
「『She has some recent association with the number twelve?』
「The younger brother impatiently rejoined, 『With twelve
o』clock.』
「『See, gentlemen,』 said I, still keeping my hands upon her
breast, 『how useless I am, as you have brought me! If I had known
what I was coming to see, I could have come provided. As it is,
time must be lost. There are no medicines to be obtained in this
lonely place.』
「The elder brother looked to the younger, who said haughtily,
『There is a case of medicines here』; and brought it from a closet,
and put it on the table.
「I opened some of the bottles, smelt them, and put the stoppers
to my lips. If I had wanted to use anything save narcotic medicines
that were poisons in themselves, I would not have administered
any of those.
「『Do you doubt them?』 asked the younger brother.
「『You see, monsieur, I am going to use them,』 I replied, and said
no more.
「I made the patient swallow, with great difficulty, and after
many efforts, the dose that I desired to give. As I intended to
repeat it after a while, and as it was necessary to watch its
influence, I then sat down by the side of the bed. There was a
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timid and suppressed woman in attendance (wife of the man
down-stairs), who had retreated into a corner. The house was
damp and decayed, indifferently furnished—evidently, recently
occupied and temporarily used. Some thick old hangings had been
nailed up before the windows, to deaden the sound of the shrieks.
They continued to be uttered in their regular succession, with the
cry, 『My husband, my father, and my brother!』 the counting up to
twelve, and 『Hush!』 The frenzy was so violent, that I had not
unfastened the bandages restraining the arms; but I had looked to
them, to see that they were not painful. The only spark of
encouragement in the case, was, that my hand upon the sufferer』s
breast had this much soothing influence, that for minutes at a time
it tranquilised the figure. It had no effect upon the cries; no
pendulum could be more regular.
「For the reason that my hand had this effect (I assume), I had
sat by the side of the bed for half an hour, with the two brothers
looking on, before the elder said:
「『There is another patient.』
「I was startled, and asked, 『Is it a pressing case?』
「『You had better see,』 he carelessly answered; and took up a
light.
「The other patient lay in a back room across a second staircase,
which was a species of loft over a stable. There was a low plastered
ceiling to a part of it; the rest was open, to the ridge of the tiled
roof, and there were beams across. Hay and straw were stored in
that portion of the place, faggots for firing, and a heap of apples in
sand. I had to pass through that part, to get at the other. My
memory is circumstantial and unshaken. I try it with these details,
and I see them all, in this my cell in the Bastille, near the close of
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the tenth year of my captivity, as I saw them all that night.
「On some hay on the ground, with a cushion thrown under his
head, lay a handsome peasant boy—a boy of not more than
seventeen at the most. He lay on his back, with his teeth set, his
right hand clenched on his breast, and his glaring eyes looking
straight upward. I could not see where his wound was, as I
kneeled on one knee over him; but, I could see that he was dying
of a wound from a sharp point.
「『I am a doctor, my poor fellow,』 said I. 『Let me examine it.』
「『I do not want it examined,』 he answered; 『let it be.』 「It was
under his hand, and I soothed him to let me move his hand away.
The wound was a sword-thrust, received from twenty to twenty-
four hours before, but no skill could have saved him if it had been
looked to without delay. He was then dying fast. As I turned my
eyes to the elder brother, I saw him looking down at this
handsome boy whose life was ebbing out, as if he were a wounded
bird, or hare, or rabbit; not at all as if he were a fellow-creature.
「『How has this been done, monsieur?』 said I.
「『A crazed young common dog! A serf! Forced my brother to
draw upon him, and has fallen by my brother』s sword—like a
gentleman.』
「There was no touch of pity, sorrow, or kindred humanity in
this answer. The speaker seemed to acknowledge that it was
inconvenient to have that different order of creature dying there,
and that it would have been better if he had died in the usual
obscure routine of his vermin kind. He was quite incapable of any
compassionate feeling about the boy, or about his fate.
「The boy』s eyes had slowly moved to him as he had spoken, and
they now slowly moved to me.
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「『Doctor, they are very proud, these Nobles; but we common
dogs are proud too, sometimes. They plunder us, outrage us, beat
us, kill us; but we have a little pride left, sometimes. She—have
you seen her, Doctor?』
「The shrieks and the cries were audible there, though subdued
by the distance. He referred to them, as if she were lying in our
presence.
「I said, 『I have seen her.』
「『She is my sister, Doctor. They have had their shameful rights,
these Nobles. in the modesty and virtue of our sisters, many years,
but we have had good girls among us. I know it, and have heard
my father say so. She was a good girl. She was betrothed to a good
young man, too: a tenant of his. We were all tenants of his—that
man』s who stands there. The other is his brother, the worst of a
bad race.』
「It was with the greatest difficulty that the boy gathered bodily
force to speak; but, his spirit spoke with a dreadful emphasis.
「『We were so robbed by that man who stands there, as all we
common dogs are by those superior Beings—taxed by him without
mercy, obliged to work for him without pay, obliged to grind our
corn at his mill, obliged to feed scores of his tame birds on our
wretched crops, and forbidden for our lives to keep a single tame
bird of our own, pillaged and plundered to that degree that when
we chanced to have a bit of meat, we ate it in fear, with the door
barred and the shutters closed, that his people should not see it
and take it from us—I say, we were so robbed, and hunted, and
were made so poor, that our father told us it was a dreadful thing
to bring a child into the world, and that what we should most pray
for, was, that our women might be barren and our miserable race
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die out!』 「I had never before seen the sense of being oppressed,
bursting forth like a fire. I had supposed that it must be latent in
the people somewhere; but. I had never seen it break out, until I
saw it in the dying boy.
「『Nevertheless, Doctor, my sister married. He was ailing at that
time, poor fellow, and she married her lover, that she might tend
and comfort him in our cottage—our dog-hut, as that man would
call it. She had not been married many weeks, when that man』s
brother saw her and admired her, and asked that man to lend her
to him—for what are husbands among us! He was willing enough,
but my sister was good and virtuous, and hated his brother with a
hatred as strong as mine. What did the two then, to persuade her
husband to use his influence with her, to make her willing?』
「The boy』s eyes, which had been fixed on mine, slowly turned
to the looker-on, and I saw in the two faces that all he said was
true. The two opposing kinds of pride confronting one another, I
can see, even in this Bastille; the gentleman』s all negligent
indifference; the peasant』s, all trodden-down sentiment, and
passionate revenge.
「『You know, Doctor, that it is among the Rights of these Nobles
to harness us common dogs to carts, and drive us. They so
harnessed him and drove him. You know that it is among their
Rights to keep us in their grounds all night, quieting the frogs, in
order that their noble sleep may not be disturbed. They kept him
out in the unwholesome mists at night, and ordered him back into
his harness in the day. But he was not persuaded. No! Taken out
of harness one day at noon, to feed—if he could find food—he
sobbed twelve times, once for every stroke of the bell, and died on
her bosom.』 「Nothing human could have held life in the boy but
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his determination to tell all his wrong. He forced back the
gathering shadows of death, as he forced his clenched right hand
to remain clenched, and to cover his wound.
「『Then, with that man』s permission and even with his aid, his
brother took her away; in spite of what I know she must have told
his brother—and what that is, will not be long unknown to you,
Doctor, if it is now—his brother took her away—for his pleasure
and diversion, for a little while. I saw her pass me on the road.
When I took the tidings home, our father』s heart burst; he never
spoke one of the words that filled it. I took my young sister (for I
have another) to a place beyond the reach of this man, and where,
at least, she will never be his vassal. Then, I tracked the brother
here, and last night climbed in—a common dog, but sword in
hand.—Where is the loft window? It was somewhere here?』
「The room was darkening to his sight; the world was narrowing
around him. I glanced about me, and saw that the hay and straw
were trampled over the floor, as if there had been a struggle.
「『She heard me, and ran in. I told her not to come near us till he
was dead. He came in and first tossed me some pieces of money;
then struck at me with a whip. But I, though a common dog, so
struck at him as to make him draw. Let him break into as many
pieces as he will, the sword that he stained with my common
blood; he drew to defend himself—thrust at me with all his skill for
his life.』
「My glance had fallen, but a few moments before. on the
fragments of a broken sword, lying among the hay. That weapon
was a gentleman』s. In another place. lay an old sword that seemed
to have been a soldier』s.
「『Now, lift me up, Doctor; lift me up. Where is he?』
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「『He is not here,』 I said, supporting the boy, and thinking that
he referred to the brother.
「『He! Proud as these Nobles are, he is afraid to see me. Where
is the man who was here? Turn my face to him.』
「I did so, raising the boy』s head against my knee. But, invested
for the moment with extraordinary power, he raised himself
completely: obliging me to rise too, or I could not have still
supported him.
「『Marquis,』 said the boy, turned to him with his eyes opened
wide, and his right hand raised, 『in the days when all these things
are to be answered for, I summon you and yours, the last of your
bad race, to answer for them. I mark this cross of blood upon you,
as a sign that I do it. In the days when all these things are to be
answered for, I summon your brother, the worst of the bad race, to
answer for them separately. I mark this cross of blood upon him,
as a sign that I do it.』
「Twice, he put his hand to the wound in his breast, and with his
forefinger drew a cross in the air. He stood for an instant with the
finger yet raised, and, as it dropped, he dropped with it, and I laid
him down dead.
「When I returned to the bedside of the young woman, I found
her raving in precisely the same order and continuity. I knew that
this might last for many hours, and that it would probably end in
the silence of the grave.
「I repeated the medicines I had given her, and I sat at the side
of the bed until the night was far advanced. She never abated the
piercing quality of her shrieks, never stumbled in the distinctness
or the order of her words. They were always 『My husband, my
father, and my brother! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
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eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve! Hush!』 「This lasted twenty-six
hours from the time when I first saw her. I had come and gone
twice and was again sitting by her, when she began to falter. I did
what little could be done to assist that opportunity, and by-and-by
she sank into a lethargy, and lay like the dead.
「It was as if the wind and rain had lulled at last, after a long and
fearful storm. I released her arms, and called the woman to assist
me to compose her figure and the dress she had torn. It was then
that I knew her condition to be that of one in whom the first
expectations of being a mother have arisen; and it was then that I
lost the little hope I had had of her.
「『Is she dead?』 asked the Marquis, whom I will still describe as
the elder brother, coming booted into the room from his horse.
「『Not dead,』 said I; 『but like to die.』
「『What strength there is in these common bodies!』 he said,
looking down at her with some curiosity.
「『There is prodigious strength,』 I answered him. 『in sorrow and
despair.』
「He first laughed at my words, and then frowned at them. He
moved a chair with his foot near to mine, ordered the woman
away, and said in a subdued voice, 『Doctor, finding my brother in
this difficulty with these hinds, I recommended that your aid
should be invited. Your reputation is high, and, as a young man
with your fortune to make, you are probably mindful of your
interest. The things that you see here, are things to be seen, and
not spoken of.』
「I listened to the patient』s breathing, and avoided answering.
「『Do you honour me with your attention, Doctor?』
「『Monsieur,』 said I, 『in my profession, the communications of
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patients are always received in confidence.』 I was guarded in my
answer, for I was troubled in my mind with what I had heard and
seen.
「Her breathing was so difficult to trace, that I carefully tried the
pulse and the heart. There was life, and no more. Looking round
as I resumed my seat, I found both the brothers intent upon me.
「I write with so much difficulty, the cold is so severe, I am so
fearful of being detected and consigned to an underground cell
and total darkness, that I must abridge this narrative. There is no
confusion or failure in my memory; it can recall, and could detail,
every word that was ever spoken between me and those brothers.
「She lingered for a week. Towards the last, I could understand
some few syllables that she said to me, by placing my ear close to
her lips. She asked me where she was, and I told her; who I was,
and I told her. It was in vain that I asked her for her family name.
She faintly shook her head upon the pillow, and kept her secret, as
the boy had done.
「I had no opportunity of asking her any questions, until I had
told the brothers she was sinking fast, and could not live another
day. Until then, though no one was ever presented to her
consciousness save the woman and myself, one or other of them
had always jealously sat behind the curtain at the head of the bed
when I was there. But when it came to that, they seemed careless
what communication I might hold with her; as if—the thought
passed through my mind—I were dying too.
「I always observed that their pride bitterly resented the
younger brother』s (as I call him) having crossed swords with a
peasant and that peasant a boy. The only consideration that
appeared to affect the mind of either of them was the
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consideration that this was highly degrading to the family, and
was ridiculous. As often as I caught the younger brother』s eyes,
their expression reminded me that he disliked me deeply, for
knowing what I knew from the boy. He was smoother and more
polite to me than the elder; but I saw this. I also saw that I was an
incumbrance in the mind of the elder, too.
「My patient died, two hours before midnight—at a time, by my
watch, answering almost to the minute when I had first seen her. I
was alone with her, when her forlorn young head dropped gently
on one side, and all her earthly wrongs and sorrows ended.
「The brothers were waiting in a room down-stairs, impatient to
ride away. I had heard them, alone at the bedside, striking their
boots with their riding-whips, and loitering up and down.
「『At last she is dead?』 said the elder, when I went in.
「『She is dead,』 said I.
「『I congratulate you, my brother,』 were his words as he turned
round.
「He had before offered me money, which I had postponed
taking. He now gave me a rouleau of gold. I took it from his hand,
but laid it on the table. I had considered the question, and had
resolved to accept nothing.
「『Pray excuse me,』 said I. 『Under the circumstances, no.』
「They exchanged looks, but bent their heads to me as I bent
mine to them, and we parted without another word on either side.
「I am weary, weary, weary—worn down by misery; I cannot
read what I have written with this gaunt hand.
「Early in the morning, the rouleau of gold was left at my door in
a little box, with my name on the outside. From the first, I had
anxiously considered what I ought to do. I decided, that day, to
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write privately to the Minister, stating the nature of the two cases
to which I had been summoned, and the place to which I had
gone: in effect, stating all the circumstances. I knew what Court
influence was, and what the immunities of the Nobles were, and I
expected that the matter would never be heard of; but, I wished to
relieve my own mind. I had kept the matter a profound secret,
even from my wife; and this, too, I resolved to state in my letter. I
had no apprehension whatever of my real danger; but I was
conscious that there might be danger for others, if others were
compromised by possessing the knowledge that I possessed.
「I was much engaged that day, and could not complete my
letter that night. I rose long before my usual time next morning to
finish it. It was the last day of the year. The letter was lying before
me just completed, when I was told that a lady waited, who wished
to see me.
「I am growing more and more unequal to the task I have set
myself. It is so cold, so dark, my senses are so benumbed, and the
gloom upon me is so dreadful.
「The lady was young, engaging, and handsome, but not marked
for long life. She was in great agitation. She presented herself to
me as the wife of the Marquis St. Evremonde. I connected the title
by which the boy had addressed the elder brother, with the initial
letter embroidered on the scarf, and had no difficulty in arriving at
the conclusion that I had seen that nobleman very lately.
「My memory is still accurate, but I cannot write the words of
our conversation. I suspect that I am watched more closely than I
was, and I know not at what times I may be watched. She had in
part suspected, and in part discovered, the main facts of the cruel
story, of her husband』s share in it, and my being resorted to. She
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did not know that the girl was dead. Her hope had been, she said
in great distress, to show her, in secret, a woman』s sympathy. Her
hope had been to avert the wrath of Heaven from a House that had
long been hateful to the suffering many.
「She had reasons for believing that there was a young sister
living, and her greatest desire was, to help that sister. I could tell
her nothing but that there was such a sister; beyond that, I knew
nothing. Her inducement to come to me, relying on my confidence,
had been the hope that I could tell her the name and place of
abode. Whereas, to this wretched hour I am ignorant of both.
「These scraps of paper fail me. One was taken from me, with a
warning yesterday. I must finish my record today.
「She was a good, compassionate lady, and not happy in her
marriage. How could she be! The brother distrusted and disliked
her, and his influence was all opposed to her; she stood in dread of
him, and in dread of her husband too. When I handed her down to
the door, there was a child, a pretty boy from two to three years
old, in her carriage.
「『For his sake, Doctor,』 she said, pointing to him in tears. 『I
would do all I can to make what poor amends I can. He will never
prosper in his inheritance otherwise. I have a presentiment that if
no other innocent atonement is made for this, it will one day be
required of him. What I have left to call my own—it is little beyond
the worth of a few jewels—I will make it the first charge of his life
to bestow, with the compassion and lamenting of his dead mother,
on this injured family, if the sister can be discovered.』 「She kissed
the boy, and said, caressing him, 『It is for thine own dear sake.
Thou wilt be faithful, little Charles?』 The child answered her
bravely, 『Yes!』 I kissed her hand, and she took him in her arms,
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and went away caressing him. I never saw her more.
「As she had mentioned her husband』s name in the faith that I
knew it, I added no mention of it to my letter. I sealed my letter,
and, not trusting it out of my own hands, delivered it myself that
day.
「That night, the last night of the year, towards nine o』clock, a
man in a black dress rang at my gate, demanded to see me, and
softly followed my servant, Ernest Defarge, a youth, up-stairs.
When my servant came into the room where I sat with my wife—O
my wife, beloved of my heart! My fair young English wife!—we
saw the man, who was supposed to be at the gate. standing silent
behind him.
「An urgent case in the Rue St. Honore, he said. It would not
detain me, he had a coach in waiting.
「It brought me here, it brought me to my grave. When I was
clear of the house, a black muffler was drawn tightly over my
mouth from behind, and my arms were pinioned. The two
brothers crossed the road from a dark corner, and identified me
with a single gesture. The Marquis took from his pocket the letter
I had written, showed it to me, burnt it in the light of a lantern that
was held, and extinguished the ashes with his foot. Not a word was
spoken. I was brought here, I was brought to my living grave.
「If it had pleased God to put it in the hard heart of either of the
brothers, in all these frightful years, to grant me any tidings of my
dearest wife—so much as to let me know by a word whether alive
or dead—I might have thought that He had not quite abandoned
them. But, now I believe that the mark of the red cross is fatal to
them, and that they have no part in His mercies. And them and
their descendants, to the last of their race, I, Alexandre Manette,
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unhappy prisoner, do this last night of the year 1767, in my
unbearable agony, denounce to the times when all these things
shall be answered for. I denounce them to Heaven and to earth.」
A terrible sound arose when the reading of this document was
done. A sound of craving and eagerness that had nothing
articulate in it but blood. The narrative called up the most
revengeful passions of the time, and there was not a head in the
nation but must have dropped before it.
Little need, in the presence of that tribunal and that auditory,
to show how the Defarges had not made the paper public, with the
other captured Bastille memorials borne in procession, and had
kept it, biding their time. Little need to show that this detested
family name had long been anathematised by Saint Antoine, and
was wrought into the fatal register. The man never trod ground
whose virtues and services would have sustained him in that place
that day, against such denunciation.
And all the worse for the doomed man, that the denouncer was
a well-known citizen, his own attached friend, the father of his
wife. One of the frenzied aspirations of the populace was, for
imitations of the questionable public virtues of antiquity, and for
sacrifices and self-immolations on the people』s altar. Therefore
when the President said (else had his own head quivered on his
shoulders), that the good physician of the Republic would deserve
better still of the Republic by rooting out an obnoxious family of
Aristocrats, and would doubtless feel a sacred glow and joy in
making his daughter a widow and her child an orphan, there was
wild excitement, patriotic fervour, not a touch of human
sympathy.
「Much influence around him, has that Doctor?」 murmured
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Madame Defarge, smiling to The Vengeance. 「Save him now, my
Doctor, save him!」
At every juryman』s vote, there was a roar. Another and another.
Roar and roar.
Unanimously voted. At heart and by descent an Aristocrat, an
enemy of the Republic, a notorious oppressor of the People. Back
to the Conciergerie, and Death within four-and-twenty hours!
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ChapterXLI
DUSK
The wretched wife of the innocent man thus doomed to die.
fell under the sentence, as if she had been mortally
stricken. But, she uttered no sound; and so strong was the
voice within her, representing that it was she of all the world who
must uphold him in his misery and not augment it, that it quickly
raised her, even from that shock.
The judges having to take part in a public demonstration out of
doors, the tribunal adjourned. The quick noise and movement of
the court』s emptying itself by many passages had not ceased, when
Lucie stood stretching out her arms towards her husband, with
nothing in her face but love and consolation.
「If I might touch him! If I might embrace him once! O, good
citizens, if you would have so much compassion for us!」
There was but a gaoler left, along with two of the four men who
had taken him last night, and Barsad. The people had all poured
out to the show in the streets. Barsad proposed to the rest, 「Let
her embrace him then; it is but a moment.」 It was silently
acquiesced in, and they passed her over the seats in the hall to a
raised place, where he, by leaning over the dock, could fold her in
his arms.
「Farewell, dear darling of my soul. My parting blessing on my
love. We shall meet again, where the weary are at rest!」
They were her husband』s words, as he held her to his bosom.
「I can bear it, dear Charles. I am supported from above: don』t
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suffer for me. A parting blessing for our child.」
「I send it to her by you. I kiss her by you. I say farewell to her
by you.」
「My husband. No! A moment!」 He was tearing himself apart
from her. 「We shall not be separated long. I feel that this will
break my heart by-and-by; but I will do my duty while I can, and
when I leave her, GoD will raise up friends for her, as He did for
me.」
Her father had followed her, and would have fallen on his knees
to both of them, but that Darnay put out a hand and seized him,
crying:
「No, no! What have you done, what have you done, that you
should kneel to us! We know now, what a struggle you made of
old. We know now, what you underwent when you suspected my
descent, and when you knew it. We know now, the natural
antipathy you strove against, and conquered, for her dear sake.
We thank you with all our hearts, and all our love and duty.
Heaven be with you!」
Her father』s only answer was to draw his hands through his
white hair, and wring them with a shriek of anguish.
「It could not be otherwise,」 said the prisoner. 「All things have
worked together as they have fallen out. It was the always-vain
endeavour to discharge my poor mother』s trust that first brought
my fatal presence near you. Good could never come of such evil, a
happier end was not in nature to so unhappy a beginning. Be
comforted, and forgive me. Heaven bless you!」
As he was drawn away, his wife released him, and stood looking
after him with her hands touching one another in the attitude of
prayer, and with a radiant look upon her face, in which there was
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even a comforting smile. As he went out at the prisoners』 door, she
turned, laid her head lovingly on her father』s breast. tried to speak
to him, and fell at his feet.
Then, issuing from the obscure corner from which he had never
moved, Sydney Carton came and took her up. Only her father and
Mr. Lorry were with her. His arm trembled as it raised her, and
supported her head. Yet, there was an air about him that was not
all of pity—that had a flush of pride in it.
「Shall I take her to a coach? I shall never feel her weight.」
He carried her lightly to the door, and laid her tenderly down in
a coach. Her father and their old friend got into it, and he took his
seat beside the driver.
When they arrived at the gateway where he had paused in the
dark not many hours before, to picture to himself on which of the
rough stones of the street her feet had trodden, he lifted her again,
and carried her up the staircase to their rooms. There, he laid her
down on a couch, where her child and Miss Pross wept over her.
「Don』t recall her to herself,」 he said, softly, to the latter, 「she is
better so. Don』t revive her to consciousness, while she only faints.」
「Oh, Carton, Carton, dearCarton!」 criedlittleLucie. springing
up and throwing her arms passionately round him, in a burst of
grief. 「Now that you have come, I think you will do something to
help mamma, something to save papa! O, look at her, dear Carton!
Can you, of all the people who love her, bear to see her so?」
He bent over the child, and laid her blooming cheek against his
face. He put her gently from him, and looked at her unconscious
mother.
「Before I go,」 he said, and paused—「I may kiss her?」
It was remembered afterwards that when he bent down and
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touched her face with his lips, he murmured some words. The
child, who was nearest to him, told them afterwards, and told her
grandchildren when she was a handsome old lady, that she heard
him say, 「A life you love.」
When he had gone out into the next room, he turned suddenly
on Mr. Lorry and her father, who were following, and said to the
latter:
「You had great influence but yesterday, Doctor Manette; let it
at least be tried. These judges, and all the men in power are very
friendly to you, and very recognisant of your services; are they
not?」
「Nothing connected with Charles was concealed from me. I had
the strongest assurances that I should save him; and I did.」 He
returned the answer in great trouble, and very slowly.
「Try them again. The hours between this and tomorrow
afternoon are few and short, but try.」
「I intend to try. I will not rest a moment.」
「That』s well. I have known such energy as yours do great things
before now—though never,」 he added. with a smile and a sigh
together, 「such great things as this. But try! Of little worth as life
is when we misuse it, it is worth that effort. It would cost nothing
to lay down if it were not.」
「I will go,」 said Doctor Manette, 「to the Prosecutor and the
President straight, and I will go to others whom it is better not to
name. I will write too, and—But stay! There is a celebration in the
streets, and no one will be accessible until dark.」
「That』s true. Well! It is a forlorn hope at the best, and not much
the forlorner for being delayed till dark. I should like to know how
you speed; though mind! I expect nothing! When are you likely to
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have seen these dread powers, Doctor Manette?」
「Immediately after dark, I should hope. Within an hour or two
from this?」
「It will be dark soon after four. Let us stretch the hour or two. If
I go to Mr. Lorry』s at nine, shall I hear what you have done, either
from our friend or from yourself?」
「Yes.」
「May you prosper!」
Mr. Lorry followed Sydney to the outer door, and, touching him
on the shoulder as he was going away, caused him to turn.
「I have no hope,」 said Mr. Lorry, in a low and sorrowful
whisper.
「Nor have I.」
「If any one of these men, or all of these men, were disposed to
spare him—which is a large supposition; for what is his life, or any
man』s to them!—I doubt if they durst spare him after the
demonstration in the court.」
「And so do I. I heard the fall of the axe in that sound.」
Mr. Lorry leaned his arm upon the door-post and bowed his
face upon it.
「Don』t despond,」 said Carton, very gently; 「don』t grieve. I
encouraged Doctor Manette in this idea, because I felt that it
might one day be consolatory to her. Otherwise, she might think
『his life was wantonly thrown away or wasted,』 and that might
trouble her.」
「Yes, yes, yes,」 returned Mr. Lorry, drying his eyes, 「you are
right. But he will perish; there is no real hope.」
「Yes. He will perish: there is no real hope,」 echoed Carton. And
he walked with a settled step, down-stairs.
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Chapter XLII
DARKNESS
S ydney Carton paused in the street, not quite decided where
to go. 「At Tellson』s banking-house at nine,」 he said, with a
musing face. 「Shall I do well, in the meantime, to show
myself? I think so. It is best that these people should know there is
such a man as I here; it is a sound precaution, and may be a
necessary preparation. But care, care, care! Let me think it out!」
Checking his steps which had begun to tend towards an object,
he took a turn or two in the already darkening street, and traced
the thought in his mind to its possible consequences. His first
impression was confirmed. 「It is best,」 he said, finally resolved,
「that these people should know there is such a man as I here.」
And he turned his face towards Saint Antoine.
Defarge had described himself, that day, as the keeper of a
wine-shop in the Saint Antoine suburb. It was not difficult for one
who knew the city well, to find his house without asking any
question. Having ascertained its situation, Carton came out of
those closer streets again, and dined at a place of refreshment and
fell sound asleep after dinner. For the first time in many years, he
had no strong drink. Since last night he had taken nothing but a
little light thin wine, and last night he had dropped the brandy
slowly down on Mr. Lorry』s hearth like a man who had done with
it.
It was as late as seven o』clock when he awoke refreshed, and
went out into the streets again. As he passed along towards Saint
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Antoine, he stopped at a shop-window where there was a mirror,
and slightly altered the disordered arrangement of his loose
cravat, and his coat-collar, and his wild hair. This done, he went
on direct to Defarge』s, and went in.
There happened to be no customers in the shop but Jacques
Three, of the restless fingers and the croaking voice. This man,
whom he had seen upon the Jury. stood drinking at the little
counter, in conversation with the Defarges, man and wife. The
Vengeance assisted in the conversation, like a regular member of
the establishment.
As Carton walked in, took his seat and asked (in very indifferent
French) for a small measure of wine. Madame Defarge cast a
careless glance at him, and then a keener, and then a keener, and
then advanced to him herself, and asked him what it was he had
ordered.
He repeated what he had already said.
「English?」 asked Madame Defarge, inquisitively raising her
dark eyebrows.
After looking at her, as if the sound of even a single French
word were slow to express itself to him, he answered, in his former
strong foreign accent. 「Yes, madame, yes. I am English!」
Madame Defarge returned to her counter to get the wine, and,
as he took up a Jacobin journal and feigned to pore over it
puzzling out its meaning, he heard her say, 「I swear to you, like
Evremonde!」
Defarge brought him the wine, and gave him Good Evening.
「How?」
「Good evening.」
「Oh! Good evening, citizen,」 filling his glass. 「Ah! and good
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wine. I drink to the Republic.」
Defarge went back to the counter, and said, 「Certainly, a little
like.」 Madame sternly retorted, 「I tell you a good deal like.」
Jacques Three pacifically remarked, 「He is so much in your mind,
see you, madame.」 The amiable Vengeance added, with a laugh.
「Yes, my faith! And you are looking forward with so much
pleasure to seeing him once more tomorrow!」
Carton followed the lines and words of his paper, with a slow
forefinger, and with a studious and absorbed face. They were all
leaning their arms on the counter close together, speaking low.
After a silence of a few moments, during which they all looked
towards him without disturbing his outward attention from the
Jacobin editor, they resumed their conversation.
「It is true what madame says,」 observed Jacques Three. 「Why
stop? There is great force in that. Why stop?」
「Well, well,」 reasoned Defarge, 「but one must stop somewhere.
After all, the question is still where?」
「At extermination,」 said madame.
「Magnificent!」 croaked Jacques Three. The Vengeance, also,
highly approved.
「Extermination is good doctrine, my wife,」 said Defarge, rather
troubled; 「in general, I say nothing against it. But this Doctor has
suffered much; you have seen him today; you have observed his
face when the paper was read.」
「I have observed his face!」 repeated madame, contemptuously
and angrily. 「Yes. I have observed his face. I have observed his
face to be not the face of a true friend of the Republic. Let him
take care of his face!」
「And you have observed, my wife,」 said Defarge, in a
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deprecatory manner, 「the anguish of his daughter, which must be
a dreadful anguish to him!」
「I have observed his daughter,」 repeated madame; 「yes, I have
observed his daughter, more times than one. I have observed her
today, and I have observed her other days. I have observed her in
the court, and I have observed her in the street by the prison. Let
me but lift my finger—!」 She seemed to raise it (the listener』s eyes
were always on his paper), and to let it fall with a rattle on the
ledge before her, as if the axe had dropped.
「The citizeness is superb!」 croaked the Juryman.
「She is an Angel!」 said The Vengeance, and embraced her.
「As to thee,」 pursued madame, implacably, addressing her
husband, 「if it depended on thee—which, happily, it does not—
thou wouldst rescue this man even now.」
「No!」 protested Defarge. 「Not if to lift this glass would do it!
But I would leave the matter there. I say, stop there.」
「See you then, Jacques,」 said Madame Defarge, wrathfully;
「and see you, too, my little Vengeance: see you both! Listen! For
other crimes as tyrants and oppressors, I have this race a long
time on my register, doomed to destruction and extermination.
Ask my husband, is that so.」
「It is so,」 assented Defarge, without being asked.
「In the beginning of the great days, when the Bastille falls, he
finds this paper of today, and he brings it home, and in the middle
of the night when this place is clear and shut, we read it, here on
this spot, by the light of this lamp. Ask him, is that so.」
「It is so,」 assented Defarge.
「That night, I tell him, when the paper is read through, and the
lamp is burnt out, and the day is gleaming in above those shutters
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and between those iron bars, that I have now a secret to
communicate. Ask him, is that so.」
「It is so,」 assented Defarge again.
「I communicate to him that secret. I smite this bosom with
these two hands as I smite it now, and I tell him, 『Defarge, I was
brought up among the fishermen of the seashore, and that peasant
family so injured by the two Evremonde brothers, as that Bastille
paper describes, is my family. Defarge, that sister of the mortally
wounded boy upon the ground was my sister, that husband was
my sister』s husband, that unborn child was their child, that
brother was my brother, that father was my father, those dead are
my dead, and that summons to answer for those things descends
to me!』 Ask him, is that so.」
「It is so,」 assented Defarge once more.
「Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop,」 returned madame;
「but don』t tell me.」
Both her hearers derived a horrible enjoyment from the deadly
nature of her wrath—the listener could feel how white she was,
without seeing her—and both highly commended it. Defarge, a
weak minority, interposed a few words of the memory of the
compassionate wife of the Marquis; but only elicited from his own
wife a repetition of her last reply. 「Tell the Wind and the Fire
where to stop; not me!」
Customers entered, and the group was broken up. The English
customer paid for what he had had, perplexedly counted his
change, and asked, as a stranger, to be directed towards the
National Palace. Madame Defarge took him to the door, and put
her arm on his, in pointing out the road. The English customer
was not without his reflections then, that it might be a good deed
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to seize that arm, lift it, and strike under it sharp and deep.
But, he went his way, and was soon swallowed up in the
shadow of the prison wall. At the appointed hour, he emerged
from it to present himself in Mr. Lorry』s room again, where he
found the old gentleman walking to and fro in restless anxiety. He
said he had been with Lucie until just now, and had only left her
for a few minutes, to come and keep his appointment. Her father
had not been seen, since he quitted the banking-house towards
four o』clock. She had some faint hopes that his mediation might
save Charles, but they were very slight. He had been more than
five hours gone: where could he be?
Mr. Lorry waited until ten; but, Doctor Manette not returning,
and he being unwilling to leave Lucie any longer, it was arranged
that he should go back to her, and come to the banking-house
again at midnight. In the meanwhile, Carton would wait alone by
the fire for the Doctor.
He waited and waited, and the clock struck twelve; but Doctor
Manette did not come back. Mr. Lorry returned, and found no
tidings of him, and brought none. Where could he be?
They were discussing this question, and were almost building
up some weak structure of hope on his prolonged absence, when
they heard him on the stairs. The instant he entered the room, it
was plain that all was lost.
Whether he had really been to any one, or whether he had been
all that time traversing the streets, was never known. As he stood
staring at them, they asked him no questions, for his face told
them everything.
「I cannot find it,」 said he, 「and I must have it. Where is it?」
His head and throat were bare, and, as he spoke with a helpless
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look straying all around, he took his coat off, and let it drop on the
floor.
「Where is my bench? I have been looking everywhere for my
bench, and I can』t find it. What have they done with my work?
Time presses: I must finish those shoes.」
They looked at one another, and their hearts died within them.
「Come, come!」 said he, in a whimpering miserable way; 「let me
get to work. Give me my work.」
Receiving no answer, he tore his hair, and beat his feet upon
the ground, like a distracted child.
「Don』t torture a poor forlorn wretch,」 he implored them, with a
dreadful cry; 「but give me my work! What is to become of us, if
those shoes are not done tonight?」
Lost, utterly lost!
It was so clearly beyond hope to reason with him, or try to
restore him, that—as if by agreement—they each put a hand upon
his shoulder, and soothed him to sit down before the fire, with a
promise that he should have his work presently. He sank into the
chair, and brooded over the embers, and shed tears. As if all that
had happened since the garret time were a momentary fancy, or a
dream, Mr. Lorry saw him shrink into the exact figure that
Defarge had had in keeping.
Affected, and impressed with terror as they both were, by this
spectacle of ruin, it was not a time to yield to such emotions. His
lonely daughter, bereft of her final hope and reliance, appealed to
them both too strongly. Again, as if by agreement, they looked at
one another with one meaning in their faces. Carton was the first
to speak:
「The last chance is gone: it was not much. Yes; he had better be
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taken to her. But, before you go, will you, for a moment, steadily
attend to me? Don』t ask me why I make the stipulations I am
going to make, and exact the promise I am going to exact; I have a
reason—a good one.」
「I do not doubt it,」 answered Mr. Lorry. 「Say on.」
The figure in the chair between them, was all the time
monotonously rocking itself to and fro, and moaning. They spoke
in such a tone as they would have used if they had been watching
by a sickbed in the night.
Carton stooped to pick up the coat, which lay almost entangling
his feet. As he did so, a small case in which the Doctor was
accustomed to carry the list of his day』s duties, fell lightly on the
floor. Carton took it up, and there was a folded paper in it. 「We
should look at this!」 he said. Mr. Lorry nodded his consent. He
opened it, and exclaimed, 「Thank GoD!」
「What is it?」 asked Mr. Lorry, eagerly.
「A moment! Let me speak of it in its place. First,」 he put his
hand in his coat, and took another paper from it, 「that is the
certificate which enables me to pass out of this city. Look at it. You
see—Sydney Carton, an Englishman?」
Mr. Lorry held it open in his hand, gazing in his earnest face.
「Keep it for me until tomorrow. I shall see him tomorrow, you
remember, and I had better not take it into the prison.」
「Why not?」
「I don』t know; I prefer not to do so. Now, take this paper that
Doctor Manette has carried about him. It is a similar certificate,
enabling him and his daughter and her child, at any time, to pass
the barrier and the frontier. You see?」
「Yes!」
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「Perhaps he obtained it as his last and utmost precaution
against evil, yesterday. When is it dated? But no matter; don』t stay
to look; put it up carefully with mine and your own. Now, observe!
I never doubted until within this hour or two, that he had, or could
have such a paper. It is good, until recalled. But it may be soon
recalled, and I have reason to think, will be.」
「They are not in danger?」
「They are in great danger. They are in danger of denunciation
by Madame Defarge. I know it from her own lips. I have overheard
words of that woman』s, tonight, which have presented their
danger to me in strong colours. I have lost no time, and since then,
I have seen the spy. He confirms me. He knows that a wood-
sawyer living by the prison-wall, is under the control of the
Defarges, and has been rehearsed by Madame Defarge as to his
having seen Her」—he never mentioned Lucie』s name—「making
signs and signals to prisoners. It is easy to foresee that the
pretence will be the common one, a prison plot, and that it will
involve her life—and perhaps her child』s—and perhaps her
father』s—for both have been seen with her at that place. Don』t
look so horrified. You will save them all.」
「Heaven grant I may, Carton! But how?」
「I am going to tell you how. It will depend on you, and it could
depend on no better man. This new denunciation will certainly not
take place until after tomorrow; probably not until two or three
days afterwards; more probably a week afterwards. You know it is
a capital crime to mourn for, or sympathise with, a victim of the
Guillotine. She and her father would unquestionably be guilty of
this crime, and this woman (the inveteracy of whose pursuit
cannot be described) would wait to add that strength to her case,
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and make herself doubly sure. You follow me?」
「So attentively, and with so much confidence in what you say,
that for the moment I lose sight,」 touching the back of the Doctor』s
chair, 「even of this distress.」
「You have money, and can buy the means of travelling to the
seacoast as quickly as the journey can be made. Your preparations
have been completed for some days, to return to England. Early
tomorrow have your horses ready, so that they may be in starting
trim at two o』clock in the afternoon.」
「It shall be done!」
His manner was so fervent and inspiring, that Mr. Lorry caught
the flame, and was quick as youth.
「You are a noble heart. Did I say we could depend upon no
better man? Tell her, tonight, what you know of her danger as
involving her child and her father. Dwell upon that, for she would
lay her own fair head beside her husband』s cheerfully.」 He
faltered for an instant; then went on as before. 「For the sake of her
child and her father, press upon her the necessity of leaving Paris,
with them and you at that hour. Tell her that it was her husband』s
last arrangement. Tell her that more depends upon it than she
dare believe, or hope. You think that her father, even in this sad
state. will submit himself to her; do you not?」
「I am sure of it.」
「I thought so. Quietly and steadily have all these arrangements
made in the court-yard here, even to the taking of your own seat in
the carriage. The moment I come to you, take me in, and drive
away.」
「I understand that I wait for you under all circumstances?」
「You have my certificate in your hand with the rest, you know,
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and will reserve my place. Wait for nothing but to have my place
occupied, and then for England!」
「Why, then,」 said Mr. Lorry, grasping his eager but so firm and
steady hand, 「it does not all depend on one old man, but I shall
have a young and ardent man at my side.」
「By the help of Heaven you shall! Promise me solemnly that
nothing will influence you to alter the course on which we now
stand pledged to one another.」
「Nothing, Carton.」
「Remember these words tomorrow: change the course, or delay
in it—for any reason—and no life can possibly be saved, and many
lives must inevitably be sacrificed.」
「I will remember them. I hope to do my part faithfully.」
「And I hope to do mine. Now, good-bye!」
Though he said it with a grave smile of earnestness, and though
he even put the old man』s hand to his lips, he did not part from
him then. He helped him so far to arouse the rocking figure before
the dying embers, as to get a cloak and hat put upon it, and to
tempt it forth to find where the bench and work were hidden that
it still moaningly besought to have. He walked on the other side of
it and protected it to the court-yard of the house where the
afflicted heart—so happy in the memorable time when he had
revealed his own desolate heart to it—outwatched the awful night.
He entered the courtyard and remained there for a few moments
alone, looking up at the light in the window of her room. Before he
went away, he breathed a blessing towards it and a Farewell.
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Chapter XLIII
FIFTY-TWO
In the black prison of the Conciergerie, the doomed of the day
awaited their fate. They were in number as the weeks of the
year. Fifty-two were to roll that afternoon on the life-tide of
the city to the boundless everlasting sea. Before their cells were
quit of them, new occupants were appointed; before their blood
ran into the blood spilled yesterday, the blood that was to mingle
with theirs tomorrow was already set apart.
Two score and twelve were told off. From the farmer-general of
seventy, whose riches could not buy his life, to the seamstress of
twenty, whose poverty and obscurity could not save her. Physical
diseases, engendered in the vices and neglects of men, will seize
on victims of all degrees; and the frightful moral disorder, born of
unspeakable suffering, intolerable oppression, and heartless
indifference, smote equally without distinction.
Charles Darnay, alone in a cell, had sustained himself with no
flattering delusion since he came to it from the Tribunal. In every
line of the narrative he had heard, he had heard his
condemnation. He had fully comprehended that no personal
influence could possibly save him, that he was virtually sentenced
by the millions, and that units could avail him nothing.
Nevertheless, it was not easy, with the face of his beloved wife
fresh before him, to compose his mind to what it must bear. His
hold on life was strong, and it was very, very hard, to loosen; by
gradual efforts and degrees unclosed a little here, it clenched the
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tighter there; and when he brought his strength to bear on that
hand and it yielded, this was closed again. There was a hurry, too,
in all his thoughts, a turbulent and heated working of his heart,
that contended against resignation. If, for a moment, he did feel
resigned, then his wife and child who had to live after him, seemed
to protest and to make it a selfish thing.
But, all this was at first. Before long, the consideration that
there was no disgrace in the fate he must meet, and that numbers
went the same road wrongfully, and trod it firmly every day,
sprang up to stimulate him. Next followed the thought that much
of the future peace of mind enjoyable by the dear ones, depended
on his quiet fortitude. So, by degrees he calmed into the better
state, when he could raise his thoughts much higher and draw
comfort down.
Before it had set in dark on the night of his condemnation, he
had travelled thus far on his last way. Being allowed to purchase
the means of writing, and a light, he sat down to write until such
time as the prison lamps should be extinguished.
He wrote a long letter to Lucie, showing her that he had known
nothing of her father』s imprisonment, until he had heard of it from
herself, and that he had been as ignorant as she of his father』s and
uncle』s responsibility for that misery, until the paper had been
read. He had already explained to her that his concealment from
herself of the name he had relinquished, was the one condition—
fully intelligible now—that her father had attached to their
betrothal, and was the one promise he had still exacted on the
morning of their marriage. He entreated her, for her father』s sake,
never to seek to know whether her father had become oblivious of
the existence of the paper, or had had it recalled to him (for the
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moment or, for good), by the story of the Tower, on that old
Sunday under the dear old plane-tree in the garden. If he had
preserved any definite remembrance of it, there could be no doubt
that he had supposed it destroyed with the Bastille, when he had
found no mention of it among the relics of prisoners which the
populace had discovered there, and which had been described to
all the world. He besought her—though he added that he knew it
was needless—to console her father, by impressing him through
every tender means she could think of , with the truth that he had
done nothing for which he could justly reproach himself, but had
uniformly forgotten himself for their joint sakes. Next to her
preservation of his own last grateful love and blessing, and her
overcoming of her sorrow, to devote herself to their dear child, he
adjured her, as they would meet in Heaven, to comfort her father.
To her father himself, he wrote in the same strain; but, he told
her father that he expressly confided his wife and child to his care.
And he told him this, very strongly, with the hope of rousing him
from any despondency or dangerous retrospect towards which he
foresaw he might be tending.
To Mr. Lorry, he commended them all, and explained his
worldly affairs. That done, with many added sentences of grateful
friendship and warm attachment, all was done. He never thought
of Carton. His mind was so full of the others, that he never once
thought of him.
He had time to finish these letters before the lights were put
out. When he lay down on his straw bed, he thought he had done
with this world.
But, it beckoned him back in his sleep, and showed itself in
shining forms. Free and happy, back in the old house in Soho
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(though it had nothing in it like the real house), unaccountably
released and light of heart, he was with Lucie again, and she told
him it was all a dream, and he had never gone away. A pause of
forgetfulness, and then he had even suffered, and had come back
to her, dead and at peace, and yet there was no difference in him.
Another pause of oblivion, and he awoke in the sombre morning,
unconscious where he was or what had happened, until it flashed
upon his mind, 「this is the day of my death!」
Thus, had he come through the hours, to the day when the fifty-
two heads were to fall. And now, while he was composed, and
hoped that he could meet the end with quiet heroism, a new action
began in his waking thoughts, which was very difficult to master.
He had never seen the instrument that was to terminate his life.
How high it was from the ground, how many steps it had, where
he would be stood, how he would be touched, whether the
touching hands would be dyed red, which way his face would be
turned, whether he would be the first, or might be the last: these
and many similar questions, in no wise directed by his will,
obtruded themselves over and over again, countless times. Neither
were they connected with fear: he was conscious of no fear.
Rather, they originated in a strange besetting desire to know what
to do when the time came; a desire gigantically disproportionate to
the few swift moments to which it referred; a wondering that was
more like the wondering of some other spirit within his, than his
own.
The hours went on as he walked to and fro, and the clocks
struck the numbers he would never hear again. Nine gone for
ever, ten gone for ever, eleven gone for ever, twelve coming on to
pass away. After a hard contest with the eccentric action of
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thought which had last perplexed him, he had got the better of it.
He walked up and down softly repeating their names to himself.
The worst of the strife was over. He could walk up and down, free
from distracting fancies, praying for himself and for them.
Twelve gone for ever.
He had been apprised that the final hour was Three, and he
knew he would be summoned some time earlier. inasmuch as the
tumbrils jolted heavily and slowly through the streets. Therefore,
he resolved to keep Two before his mind, as the hour, and so to
strengthen himself in the interval that he might be able, after that
time. to strengthen others.
Walking regularly to and fro with his arms folded on his breast,
a very different man from the prisoner, who had walked to and fro
at La Force, he heard One struck away from him, without
surprise. The hour had measured like most other hours. Devoutly
thankful to Heaven for his recovered self-possession, he thought,
「There is but another now,」 and turned to walk again.
Footsteps in the stone passage outside the door. He stopped.
The key was put in the lock, and turned. Before the door was
opened, or as it opened, a man said in a low voice, in English: 「He
has never seen me here; I have kept out of his way. Go you in
alone; I wait near. Lose no time!」
The door was quickly opened and closed, and there stood
before him face to face, quiet, intent upon him, with the light of a
smile on his features, and a cautionary finger on his lip, Sydney
Carton.
There was something so bright and remarkable in his look, that,
for the moment, the prisoner misdoubted him to be an apparition
of his own imagining. But, he spoke, and it was his voice; he took
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the prisoner』s hand, and it was his real grasp.
「Of all the people upon earth, you least expected to see me?」 he
said.
「I could not believe it to be you. I can scarcely believe it now.
You are not」—the apprehension came suddenly into his mind—「a
prisoner?」
「No. I am accidentally possessed of a power over one of the
keepers here, and in virtue of it I stand before you. I come from
her—your wife, dear Darnay.」
The prisoner wrung his hand.
「I bring you a request from her.」
「What is it?」
「A most earnest, pressing, and emphatic entreaty, addressed to
you in the most pathetic tones of the voice so dear to you, that you
well remember.」
The prisoner turned his face partly aside.
「You have no time to ask me why I bring it, or what it means; I
have no time to tell you. You must comply with it—take off those
boots you wear, and draw on these of mine.」
There was a chair against the wall of the cell, behind the
prisoner. Carton, pressing forward, had already, with the speed of
lightning, got him down into it, and stood over him, barefoot.
「Draw on these boots of mine. Put your hands to them; put
your will to them. Quick!」
「Carton, there is no escaping from this place; it never can be
done. You will only die with me. It is madness.」
「It would be madness if I asked you to escape; but do I? When I
ask you to pass out at that door, tell me it is madness and remain
here. Change that cravat for this of mine, that coat for this of mine.
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While you do it. let me take this ribbon from your hair, and shake
out your hair like this of mine!」
With wonderful quickness, and with a strength both of will and
action, that appeared quite supernatural, he forced all these
changes upon him. The prisoner was like a young child in his
hands.
「Carton! Dear Carton! It is madness. It cannot be
accomplished, it never can be done, it has been attempted, and
has always failed. I implore you not to add your death to the
bitterness of mine.」
「Do I ask you, my dear Darnay, to pass the door? When I ask
that, refuse. There are pen and ink and paper on this table. Is your
hand steady enough to write?」
「It was when you came in.」
「Steady it again, and write what I shall dictate. Quick, friend,
quick!」
Pressing his hand to his bewildered head, Darnay sat down at
the table. Carton, with his right hand in his breast, stood close
beside him.
「Write exactly as I speak.」
「To whom do I address it?」
「To no one.」 Carton still had his hand in his breast.
「Do I date it?」
「No.」
The prisoner looked up, at each question. Carton standing over
him with his hand in his breast, looked down.
「『If you remember,』」 said Carton, dictating, 「『the words that
passed between us, long ago, you will readily comprehend this
when you see it. You do remember them, I know. It is not in your
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nature to forget them.』」 He was drawing his hand from his breast;
the prisoner chancing to look up in his hurried wonder as he
wrote, the hand stopped, closing upon something.
「Have you written 「forget them』?」 Carton asked.
「I have. Is that a weapon in your hand?」
「No; I am not armed.」
「What is it in your hand?」
「You shall know directly. Write on; there are but a few words
more.」 He dictated again. 「『I am thankful that the time has come,
when I can prove them. That I do so is no subject for regret or
grief.』」 As he said these words with his eyes fixed on the writer, his
hand slowly and softly moved down close to the writer』s face.
The pen dropped from Darnay』s fingers on the table, and he
looked about him vacantly.
「What vapour is that?」 he asked.
「Vapour?」
「Something that crossed me?」
「I am conscious of nothing; there can be nothing here. Take up
the pen and finish. Hurry, hurry!」
As if his memory were impaired, or his faculties disordered, the
prisoner made an effort to rally his attention. As he looked at
Carton with clouded eyes and with an altered manner of
breathing, Carton—his hand again in his breast—looked steadily
at him.
「Hurry, hurry!」
The prisoner bent over the paper, once more.
「『If it had been otherwise』」; Carton』s hand was again watchfully
and softly stealing down; 「『I never should have used the longer
opportunity. If it had been otherwise』」; the hand was at the
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prisoner』s face; 「『I should but have had so much the more to
answer for. If it had been otherwise—,』」 Carton looked at the pen
and saw it was trailing off into unintelligible signs.
Carton』s hand moved back to his breast no more. The prisoner
sprang up with a reproachful look, but Carton』s hand was close
and firm to his nostrils, and Carton』s left arm caught him round
the waist. For a few seconds he faintly struggled with the man who
had come to lay down his life for him; but, within a minute or so,
he was stretched insensible on the ground.
Quickly, but with his hands as true to the purpose as his heart
was, Carton dressed himself in the clothes the prisoner had laid
aside, combed back his hair, and tied it with the ribbon the
prisoner had worn. Then, he softly called, 「Enter there! Come in!」
and the Spy presented himself.
「You see?」 said Carton, looking up, as he kneeled on one knee
beside the insensible figure, putting the paper in the breast; 「is
your hazard very great?」
「M. Carton,」 the Spy answered, with a timid snap of his fingers,
「my hazard is not that, in the thick of business here, if you are true
to the whole of your bargain.」
「Don』t fear me. I will be true to the death.」
「You must be, Mr. Carton, if the tale of fifty-two is to be right.
Being made right by you in that dress, I shall have no fear.」
「Have no fear! I shall soon be out of the way of harming you,
and the rest will soon be far from here, please God! Now, get
assistance and take me to the coach.」
「You?」 said the Spy nervously.
「Him, man, with whom I have exchanged. You go out at the
gate by which you brought me in?」
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「Of course.」
「I was weak and faint when you brought me in, and I am fainter
now you take me out. The parting interview has overpowered me.
Such a thing has happened here, often, and too often. Your life is
in your own hands. Quick! Call assistance!」
「You swear not to betray me?」 said the trembling Spy, as he
paused for a last moment.
「Man, man!」 returned Carton, stamping his foot; 「have I sworn
by no solemn vow already, to go through with this, that you waste
the precious moments now? Take him yourself to the court-yard
you know of , place him yourself in the carriage, show him yourself
to Mr. Lorry, tell him yourself to give him no restorative but air,
and to remember my words of last night, and his promise of last
night, and drive away!」
The Spy withdrew, and Carton seated himself at the table,
resting his forehead on his hands. The Spy returned immediately,
with two men.
「How then?」 said one of them, contemplating the fallen figure.
「So afflicted to find that his friend has drawn a prize in the lottery
of Sainte Guillotine?」
「A good patriot,」 said the other, 「could hardly have been more
afflicted if the Aristocrat had drawn a blank.」
They raised the unconscious figure, placed it on a litter they
had brought to the door, and bent to carry it away.
「The time is short, Evremonde,」 said the Spy, in a warning
voice.
「I know it well,」 answered Carton. 「Be careful of my friend, I
entreat you, and leave me.」
「Come, then, my children,」 said Barsad. 「Lift him, and come
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away!」
The door closed, and Carton was left alone. Straining his
powers of listening to the utmost, he listened for any sound that
might denote suspicion or alarm. There was none. Keys turned,
doors clashed, footsteps passed along distant passages: no cry was
raised, or hurry made, that seemed unusual. Breathing more
freely in a little while, he sat down at the table, and listened again
until the clock struck Two.
Sounds that he was not afraid of , for he divined their meaning,
then began to be audible. Several doors were opened in
succession, and finally his own. A gaoler, with a list in his hand,
looked in, merely saying, 「Follow me, Evremonde!」 and he
followed him into a large dark room, at a distance. It was a dark
winter day, and what with the shadows within, and what with the
shadows without, he could but dimly discern the others who were
brought there to have their arms bound. Some were standing;
some seated. Some were lamenting, and in restless motion; but,
these were few. The great majority were silent and still, looking
fixedly at the ground.
As he stood by the wall in a dim corner, while some of the fifty-
two were brought in after him, one man stopped in passing, to
embrace him, as having a knowledge of him. It thrilled him with a
great dread of discovery; but the man went on. A very few
moments after that, a young woman, with a slight girlish form, a
sweet spare face in which there was no vestige of colour, and large
widely opened patient eyes, rose from the seat where he had
observed her sitting, and came to speak to him.
「Citizen Evremonde,」 she said, touching him with her cold
hand. 「I am a poor little seamstress, who was with you in La
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Force.」
He murmured for answer: 「True. I forget what you were
accused of ?」
「Plots. Though the just Heaven knows I am innocent of any. Is
it likely? Who would think of plotting with a poor little weak
creature like me?」
The forlorn smile with which she said it, so touched him, that
tears started from his eyes.
「I am not afraid to die, Citizen Evremonde, but I have done
nothing. I am not unwilling to die, if the Republic which is to do so
much good to us poor, will profit by my death; but I do not know
how that can be, Citizen Evremonde. Such a poor weak little
creature!」
As the last thing on earth that his heart was to warm and soften
to, it warmed and softened to this pitiable girl.
「I heard you were released, Citizen Evremonde. I hoped it was
true?」
「It was. But, I was again taken and condemned.」
「If I may ride with you, Citizen Evremonde, will you let me hold
your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will
give me more courage.」
As the patient eyes were lifted to his face, he saw a sudden
doubt in them, and then astonishment. He pressed the work-worn
hunger-worn young fingers, and touched his lips.
「Are you dying for him?」 she whispered.
「And his wife and child. Hush! Yes.」
「O you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?」
「Hush! Yes, my poor sister; to the last.」
The same shadows that are falling on the prison, are falling in
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that same hour of the early afternoon, on the Barrier with the
crowd about it, when a coach going out of Paris drives up to be
examined.
「Who goes here? Whom have we within? Papers!」
The papers are handed out, and read.
「Alexandre Manette. Physician. French. Which is he?」
This is he; this helpless, inarticulately murmuring, wandering
old man pointed out.
「Apparently the Citizen-Doctor is not in his right mind? The
Revolution-fever will have been too much for him?」
Greatly too much for him.
「Hah! Many suffer with it. Lucie. His daughter. French. Which
is she?」
This is she.
「Apparently it must be. Lucie, the wife of Evremonde; is it
not?」
It is.
「Hah! Evremonde has an assignation elsewhere. Lucie, her
child. English. This is she?」
She and no other.
「Kiss me, child of Evremonde. Now, thou hast kissed a good
Republican; something new in thy family; remember it? Sydney
Carton. Advocate. English. Which is he?」
He lies here in this corner of the carriage. He, too, is pointed
out.
「Apparently the English advocate is in a swoon?」
It is hoped he will recover in the fresher air. It is represented
that he is not in strong health, and has separated sadly from a
friend who is under the displeasure of the Republic.
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「Is that all? It is not a great deal that! Many are under the
displeasure of the Republic, and must look out at the little
window. Jarvis Lorry. Banker. English. Which is he?」
「I am he. Necessarily, being the last.」
It is Jarvis Lorry who has replied to all the previous questions.
It is Jarvis Lorry who has alighted and stands with his hand on the
coach door, replying to a group of officials. They leisurely walk
round the carriage and leisurely mount the box, to look at what
little luggage it carries on the roof; the country-people hanging
about, press nearer to the coach doors and greedily stare in; a little
child, carried by its mother, has its short arm held out for it, that it
may touch the wife of an aristocrat who has gone to the Guillotine.
「Behold your papers, Jarvis Lorry, counter-signed.」
「One can depart, citizen?」
「One can depart. Forward, my postilions! A good journey!」
「I salute you, citizens.—And the first danger passed!」
These are again the words of Jarvis Lorry, as he clasps his
hands, and looks upward. There is terror in the carriage, there is
weeping, there is the heavy breathing of the insensible traveller.
「Are we not going too slowly? Can they not be induced to go
faster?」 asks Lucie, clinging to the old m an.
「It would seem like flight, my darling. I must not urge them too
much; it would rouse suspicion.」
「Look back, look back, and see if we are pursued!」
「The road is clear my dearest. So far, we are not pursued.」
Houses in twos and threes pass by us, solitary farms, ruinous
buildings, dye-works, tanneries, and the like. open country,
avenues of leafless trees. The hard uneven pavement is under us,
the soft deep mud is on either side. Sometimes, we strike into the
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skirting mud. to avoid the stones that clatter us and shake us;
sometimes we stick in ruts and sloughs there. The agony of our
impatience is then so great, that in our wild alarm and hurry we
are for getting out and running—hiding—doing anything but
stopping.
Out of the open country, in again among ruinous buildings,
solitary farms, dye-works, tanneries, and the like, cottages in twos
and threes, avenues of leafless trees. Have these men deceived us,
and taken us back by another road? Is not this the same place
twice over? Thank Heaven, no. A village. Look back, look back,
and see if we are pursued! Hush! the posting-house.
Leisurely, our four horses are taken out; leisurely, the coach
stands in the little street, bereft of horses, and with no likelihood
upon it of ever moving again; leisurely, the new horses come into
visible existence, one by one; leisurely, the new postilions follow,
sucking and plaiting the lashes of their whips; leisurely, the old
postilions count their money, make wrong additions, and arrive at
dissatisfied results. All the time, our overfraught hearts are
beating at a rate that would far outstrip the fastest gallop of the
fastest horses ever foaled.
At length the new postilions are in their saddles, and the old are
left behind. We are through the village, up the hill, and down the
hill, and on the low watery grounds. Suddenly the postilions
exchange speech with animated gesticulations, and the horses are
pulled up, almost on their haunches. We are pursued?
「Ho! Within the carriage there. Speak then!」
「What is it?」 asks Mr. Lorry, looking out at window.
「How many did they say?」
「I do not understand you.」
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「At the last post. How many to the Guillotine today?」
「Fifty-two.」
「I said so! A brave number! My fellow-citizen here would have
it forty-two; ten more heads are worth having. The Guillotine goes
handsomely. I love it. Hi forward. Whoop!」
The night comes on dark. He moves more; he is beginning to
revive, and to speak intelligibly; he thinks they are still together;
he asks him, by his name, what he has in his hand. O pity us, kind
Heaven, and help us! Look out, look out, and see if we are
pursued.
The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us,
and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in
pursuit of us, but, so far, we are pursued by nothing else.
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Chapter XLIV
THE KNITTING DONE
In that same juncture of time when the Fifty-Two awaited their
fate, Madame Defarge held darkly ominous council with The
Vengeance and Jacques Three of the Revolutionary Jury. Not
in the wine-shop did Madame Defarge confer with these ministers,
but in the shed of the wood-sawyer, erst a mender of roads. The
sawyer himself did not participate in the conference, but abided at
a little distance, like an outer satellite who was not to speak until
required, or to offer an opinion until invited.
「But our Defarge,」 said Jacques Three, 「is undoubtedly a good
Republican? Eh?」
「There is no better,」 the voluble Vengeance protested in her
shrill notes, 「in France.」
「Peace, little Vengeance,」 said Madame Defarge, laying her
hand with a slight frown on her lieutenant』s lips, 「hear me speak.
My husband, fellow-citizen, is a good Republican and a bold man;
he has deserved well of the Republic, and possesses its confidence.
But my husband has his weaknesses, and he is so weak as to relent
towards this Doctor.」
「It is a great pity,」 croaked Jacques Three, dubiously shaking
his head, with his cruel fingers at his hungry mouth; 「it is not
quite like a good citizen; it is a thing to regret.」
「See you,」 said madame, 「I care nothing for this Doctor, I. He
may wear his head or lose it, for any interest I have in him; it is all
one to me. But, the Evremonde people are to be exterminated, and
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the wife and child must follow the husband and father.」
「She has a fine head for it,」 croaked Jacques Three. 「I have
seen blue eyes and golden hair there, and they looked charming
when Samson held them up.」 Ogre that he was, he spoke like an
epicure.
Madame Defarge cast down her eyes, and reflected a little.
「The child also,」 observed Jacques Three, with a meditative
enjoyment of his words, 「has golden hair and blue eyes. And we
seldom have a child there. It is a pretty sight!」
「In a word,」 said Madame Defarge, coming out of her short
abstraction, 「I cannot trust my husband in this matter. Not only
do I feel, since last night, that I dare not confide to him the details
of my projects; but also I feel that if I delay, there is danger of his
giving warning, and then they might escape.」
「That must never be,」 croaked Jacques Three; 「no one must
escape. We have not half enough as it is. We ought to have six
score a day.」
「In a word,」 Madame Defarge went on, 「my husband has not
my reason for pursuing this family to annihilation, and I have not
his reason for regarding this Doctor with any sensibility. I must act
for myself, therefore. Come hither, little citizen.」
The wood-sawyer, who held her in the respect, and himself in
the submission, of mortal fear, advanced with his hand to his red
cap.
「Touching those signals, little citizen,」 said Madame Defarge,
sternly, 「that she made to the prisoners; you are ready to bear
witness to them this very day?」
「Ay, ay, why not!」 cried the sawyer. 「Every day, in all weathers,
from two to four, always signalling, sometimes with the little one,
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sometimes without. I know what I know. I have seen with my
eyes.」
He made all manner of gestures while he spoke, as if in
incidental imitation of some few of the great diversity of signals
that he had never seen.
「Clearly plots,」 said Jacques Three. 「Transparently!」
「There is no doubt of the Jury?」 inquired Madame Defarge,
letting her eyes turn to him with a gloomy smile.
「Rely upon the patriotic Jury, dear citizeness. I answer for my
fellow-Jurymen.」
「Now, let me see,」 said Madame Defarge, pondering again. 「Yet
once more! Can I spare this Doctor to my husband? I have no
feeling either way. Can I spare him?」
「He would count as one dead,」 observed Jacques Three, in a
low voice. 「We really have not heads enough; it would be a pity, I
think.」
「He was signalling with her when I saw her,」 argued Madame
Defarge; 「I cannot speak of one without the other; and I must not
be silent, and trust the case wholly to him, this little citizen here.
For I am not a bad witness.」
The Vengeance and Jacques Three vied with each other in their
fervent protestations that she was the most admirable and
marvellous of witnesses. The little citizen, not to be outdone,
declared her to be a celestial witness.
「He must take his chance,」 said Madame Defarge. 「No, I
cannot spare him! You are engaged at three o』clock; you are going
to see the batch of today executed.—You?」
The question was addressed to the wood-sawyer. who hurriedly
replied in the affirmative: seizing the occasion to add that he was
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the most ardent of Republicans, and that he would be in effect the
most desolate of Republicans, if anything prevented him from
enjoying the pleasure of smoking his afternoon pipe in the
contemplation of the droll national barber. He was so very
demonstrative herein, that he might have been suspected (perhaps
was, by the dark eyes that looked contemptuously at him out of
Madame Defarge』s head) of having his small individual fears for
his own personal safety, every hour in the day.
「I,」 said madame, 「am equally engaged at the same place. After
it is over—say at eight tonight—come you to me, in Saint Antoine,
and we will give information against these people at my Section.」
The wood-sawyer said he would be proud and flattered to
attend the citizeness. The citizeness looking at him, he became
embarrassed, evaded her glance as a small dog would have done,
retreated among his wood, and hid his confusion over the handle
of his saw.
Madame Defarge beckoned the Juryman and The Vengeance a
little nearer to the door, and there expounded her further views to
them thus:
「She will now be at home, awaiting the moment of his death,
She will be mourning and grieving. She will be in a state of mind
to impeach the justice of the Republic, She will be full of sympathy
with its enemies, I will go to her.」
「What an admirable woman; what an adorable woman!」
exclaimed Jacques Three, rapturously. 「Ah, my cherished!」 cried
The Vengeance; and embraced her.
「Take you my knitting,」 said Madame Defarge, placing it in her
lieutenant』s hands, 「and have it ready for me in my usual seat,
Keep me my usual chair, Go you there, straight, for there will
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probably be a greater concourse than usual, today,」 「I willingly
obey the orders of my Chief,」 said The Vengeance with alacrity,
and kissing her cheek. 「You will not be late?」
「I shall be there before the commencement.」
「And before the tumbrils arrive. Be sure you are there, my
soul,」 said The Vengeance, calling after her, for she had already
turned into the street, 「before the tumbrils arrive!」
Madame Defarge slightly waved her hand, to imply that she
heard, and might be relied upon to arrive in good time, and so
went through the mud, and round the corner of the prison wall.
The Vengeance and the Juryman, looking after her as she walked
away, were highly appreciative of her fine figure, and her superb
moral endowments.
There were many women at that time upon whom the time laid
a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but there was not one among them
more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way
along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd
sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty
which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and
animosity, but seems to strike into others an instinctive
recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have
heaved her up, under any circumstances. But, imbued from her
childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate
hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She
was absolutely without pity, If she had ever had the virtue in her,
it had quite gone out of her.
It was nothing to her that an innocent man was to die for the
sins of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them. It was nothing
to her, that his wife was to be made a widow and his daughter an
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orphan; that was insufficient punishment, because they were her
natural enemies and her prey, and as such had no right to live. To
appeal to her, was made hopeless by her having no sense of pity,
even for herself, If she had been laid low in the streets, in any of
the many encounters in which she had been engaged, she would
not have pitied herself; nor, if she had been ordered to the axe
tomorrow, would she have gone to it with any softer feeling than a
fierce desire to change places with the man who sent her there.
Such a heart Madame Defarge carried under her rough robe.
Carelessly worn, it was a becoming robe enough, in a certain
weird way, and her dark hair looked rich under her coarse red
cap. Lying hidden in her bosom, was a loaded pistol. Lying hidden
at her waist, was a sharpened dagger. Thus accoutred, and
walking with the confident tread of such a character, and with the
supple freedom of a woman who had habitually walked in her
girlhood, bare-foot and bare-legged, on the brown sea sand,
Madame Defarge took her way along the streets, Now, when the
journey of the travelling coach, at that very moment waiting for
the completion of its load, had been planned out last night, the
difficulty of taking Miss Pross in it had much engaged Mr. Lorry』s
attention. It was not merely desirable to avoid overloading the
coach, but it was of the highest importance that the time occupied
in examining it and its passengers, should be reduced to the
utmost; since their escape might depend on the saving of only a
few seconds here and there. Finally, he had proposed, after
anxious consideration, that Miss Pross and Jerry, who were at
liberty to leave the city, should leave it at three o』clock in the
lightest-wheeled conveyance known to that period.
Unencumbered with luggage, they would soon overtake the coach,
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and, passing it and preceding it on the road, would order its horses
in advance, and greatly facilitate its progress during the precious
hours of the night, when delay was the most to be dreaded.
Seeing in this arrangement the hope of rendering real service
in that pressing emergency, Miss Pross hailed it with joy. She and
Jerry had beheld the coach start, had known who it was that
Solomon brought, had passed some ten minutes in tortures of
suspense, and were now concluding their arrangements to follow
the coach, even as Madame Defarge, taking her way through the
streets, now drew nearer and nearer to the else-deserted lodging
in which they held their consultation.
「Now what do you think, Mr. Cruncher,」 said Miss Pross,
whose agitation was so great that she could hardly speak, or stand,
or move, or live: 「what do you think of our not starting from this
court-yard? Another carriage having already gone from here
today, it might awaken suspicion.」
「My opinion, miss,」 returned Mr. Cruncher, 「is as you』re right.
Likewise wot I』ll stand by you, right or wrong.」
「I am so distracted with fear and hope for our precious
creatures,」 said Miss Pross, wildly crying, 「that I am incapable of
forming any plan. Are you capable of forming any plan, my dear
good Mr. Cruncher?」
「Respectin』 a future spear o』 life, miss,」 returned Mr. Cruncher,
「I hope so. Respectin』 any present use o』 this here blessed old
head o』 mine, I think not. Would you do me the favour, miss, to
take notice o』 two promises and wows wot it is my wishes fur to
record in this here crisis?」
「Oh, for gracious sake!」 cried Miss Pross, still wildly crying,
「record them at once, and get them out of the way, like an
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excellent man.」
「First,」 said Mr. Cruncher, who was all in a tremble, and who
spoke with an ashy and solemn visage, 「them poor things well out
o』 this, never no more will I do it, never no more!」
「I am quite sure, Mr. Cruncher,」 returned Miss Pross, 「that you
never will do it again, whatever it is, and I beg you not to think it
necessary to mention more particularly what it is.」
「No, miss,」 returned Jerry, 「it shall not be named to you.
Second: them poor things well out o』 this, and never no more will I
interfere with Mrs. Cruncher』s floppin』, never no more!」
「Whatever housekeeping arrangement that may be,」 said Miss
Pross, striving to dry her eyes and compose herself, 「I have no
doubt it is best that Mrs. Cruncher should have it entirely under
her own superintendence. O my poor darlings!」
「I go so far as to say, miss, moreover,」 proceeded Mr. Cruncher,
with a most alarming tendency to hold forth as from a pulpit—
「and let my words be took down and took to Mrs. Cruncher
through yourself—that wot my opinions respectin』 floppin』 has
undergone a change, and that wot I only hope with all my heart as
Mrs. Cruncher may be a-floppin』 at the present time.」
「There, there, there! I hope she is, my dear man,」 cried the
distracted Miss Pross, 「and I hope she finds it answering her
expectations.」
「Forbid it,」 proceeded Mr. Cruncher, with additional solemnity,
additional slowness, and additional tendency to hold forth and
hold out, 「as anything wot I have ever said or done should be
wisited on my earnest wishes for them poor creeturs now! Forbid
it as we shouldn』t all flop (if it was anyways conwenient) to get 』em
out o』 this here dismal risk! Forbid it, miss! Wot I say, for-BID it!」
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This was Mr. Cruncher』s conclusion after a protracted but vain
endeavour to find a better one.
And still Madame Defarge, pursuing her way along the streets,
came nearer and nearer.
「If we ever get back to our native land,」 said Miss Pross, 「you
may rely upon my telling Mrs. Cruncher as much as I may be able
to remember and understand of what you have so impressively
said; and at all events you may be sure that I shall bear witness to
your being thoroughly in earnest at this dreadful time. Now, pray
let us think! My esteemed Mr. Cruncher, let us think!」
Still, Madame Defarge, pursuing her way along the streets,
came nearer and nearer.
「If you were to go before,」 said Miss Pross, 「and stop the
vehicle and horses from coming here, and were to wait somewhere
for me; wouldn』t that be best?」
Mr. Cruncher thought it might be best.
「Where could you wait for me?」 asked Miss Pross.
Mr. Cruncher was so bewildered that he could think of no
locality but Temple Bar. Alas Temple Bar was hundreds of miles
away, and Madame Defarge was drawing very near indeed.
「By the cathedral door,」 said Miss Pross. 「Would it be much
out of the way, to take me in near the great cathedral door
between the two towers?」
「No, miss,」 answered Mr. Cruncher.
「Then, like the best of men,」 said Miss Pross, 「go to the
posting-house straight, and make that change.」
「I am doubtful,」 said Mr. Cruncher, hesitating and shaking his
head, 「about leaving of you, you see. We don』t know what may
happen.」
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「Heaven knows we don』t,」 returned Miss Pross, 「but have no
fear for me. Take me in at the cathedral, at three o』clock, or as
near it as you can, and I am sure it will be better than our going
from here. I feel certain of it. There! Bless you, Mr. Cruncher!
Think—not of me, but of the lives that may depend on both of us!」
This exordium, and Miss Pross』s two hands in quite agonised
entreaty clasping his, decided Mr. Cruncher. With an encouraging
nod or two, he immediately went out to alter the arrangements,
and left her by herself to follow as she had proposed.
The having originated a precaution which was already in
course of execution, was a great relief to Miss Pross. The necessity
of composing her appearance so that it should attract no special
notice in the streets, was another relief. She looked at her watch,
and it was twenty minutes past two. She had no time to lose, but
must get ready at once.
Afraid, in her extreme perturbation, of the loneliness of the
deserted rooms, and of half-imagined faces peeping from behind
every open door in them, Miss Pross got a basin of cold water and
began laving her eyes, which were swollen and red. Haunted by
her feverish apprehensions, she could not bear to have her sight
obscured for a minute at a time by the dripping water, but
constantly paused and looked round to see that there was no one
watching her. In one of those pauses she recoiled and cried out,
for she saw a figure standing i n the room.
The basin fell to the ground broken, and the water flowed to the
feet of Madame Defarge. By strange stern ways, and through
much staining blood, those feet had come to meet that water.
Madame Defarge looked coldly at her, and said. 「The wife of
Evremonde; where is she?」
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It flashed upon Miss Pross』s mind that the doors were all
standing open, and would suggest the flight. Her first act was to
shut them. There were four in the room, and she shut them all.
She then placed herself before the door of the chamber which
Lucie had occupied.
Madame Defarge』s dark eyes followed her through this rapid
movement, and rested on her when it was finished. Miss Pross had
nothing beautiful about her; years had not tamed the wildness, or
softened the grimness, of her appearance; but, she too was a
determined woman in her different way, and she measured
Madame Defarge with her eyes, every inch.
「You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,」 said
Miss Pross, in her breathing. 「Nevertheless, you shall not get the
better of me. I am an Englishwoman.」
Madame Defarge looked at her scornfully, but still with
something of Miss Pross』s own perception that they two were at
bay. She saw a tight, hard, wiry woman before her, as Mr. Lorry
had seen in the same figure a woman with a strong hand, in the
years gone by. She knew full well that Miss Pross was the family』s
devoted friend; Miss Pross knew full well that Madame Defarge
was the family』s malevolent enemy.
「On my way yonder,」 said Madame Defarge, with a slight
movement of her hand towards the fatal spot, 「where they reserve
my chair and my knitting for me, I am come to make my
compliments to her in passing. I wish to see her.」
「I know that your intentions are evil,」 said Miss Pross, 「and
you may depend upon it, I』ll hold my own against them.」
Each spoke in her own language; neither understood the
other』s words; both were very watchful, and intent to deduce from
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look and manner, what the unintelligible words meant.
「It will do her no good to keep herself concealed from me at this
moment,」 said Madame Defarge. 「Good patriots will know what
that means. Let me see her. Go tell her that I wish to see her. Do
you hear?」
「If those eyes of yours were bed-winches,」 returned Miss Pross,
「and I was an English four-poster, they shouldn』t loose a splinter
of me. No, you wicked foreign woman; I am your match.」
Madame Defarge was not likely to follow these idiomatic
remarks in detail; but, she so far understood them as to perceive
that she was set at naught.
「Woman imbecile and pig-like!」 said Madame Defarge,
frowning. 「I take no answer from you. I demand to see her. Either
tell her that I demand to see her, or stand out of the way of the
door and let me go to her!」 This, with an angry explanatory wave
of her right arm.
「I little thought,」 said Miss Pross, 「that I should ever want to
understand your nonsensical language; but I would give all I have,
except the clothes I wear, to know whether you suspect the truth,
or any part of it.」
Neither of them for a single moment released the other』s eyes.
Madame Defarge had not moved from the spot where she stood
when Miss Pross first became aware of her; but, she now advanced
one step.
「I am a Briton,」 said Miss Pross. 「I am desperate. I don』t care
an English Twopence for myself. I know that the longer I keep you
here, the greater hope there is for my Ladybird. I』ll not leave a
handful of that dark hair upon your head, if you lay a finger on
me!」
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Thus Miss Pross, with a shake of her head and a flash of her
eyes between every rapid sentence, and every rapid sentence a
whole breath. Thus Miss Pross, who had never struck a blow in
her life.
But, her courage was of that emotional nature that it brought
the irrepressible tears into her eyes. This was a courage that
Madame Defarge so little comprehended as to mistake for
weakness. 「Ha, ha!」 she laughed, 「you poor wretch! What are you
worth! I address myself to that Doctor.」 Then she raised her voice
and called out, 「Citizen Doctor! Wife of Evremonde! Child of
Evremonde! Any person but this miserable fool, answer the
Citizeness Defarge?」
Perhaps the following silence, perhaps some latent disclosure
in the expression on Miss Pross』s face, perhaps a sudden
misgiving apart from either suggestion, whispered to Madame
Defarge that they were gone. Three of the doors she opened
swiftly, and looked in.
「Those rooms are all in disorder, there has been hurried
packing, there are odds and ends upon the ground. There is no
one in that room behind you! Let me look.」
「Never!」 said Miss Pross, who understood the request as
perfectly as Madame Defarge understood the answer.
「If they are not in that room, they are gone, and can be pursued
and brought back,」 said Madame Defarge to herself.
「As long as you don』t know whether they are in that room or
not, you are uncertain what to do,」 said Miss Pross to herself; 「and
you shall not know that, if I can prevent your knowing it; and
know that, or not know that, you shall not leave here while I can
hold you.」
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「I have been in the streets from the first, nothing has stopped
me, I will tear you to pieces, but I will have you from that door,」
said Madame Defarge.
「We are alone at the top of a high house in a solitary court-yard,
we are not likely to be heard, and I pray for bodily strength to
keep you here, while every minute you are here is worth a
hundred thousand guineas to my darling,」 said Miss Pross.
Madame Defarge made at the door. Miss Pross, on the instinct
of the moment, seized her round the waist in both her arms, and
held her tight. It was in vain for Madame Defarge to struggle and
to strike; Miss Pross, with the vigorous tenacity of love, always so
much stronger than hate, clasped her tight, and even lifted her
from the floor in the struggle that they had. The two hands of
Madame Defarge buffeted and tore her face; but, Miss Pross, with
her head down, held her round the waist, and clung to her with
more than the hold of a drowning woman.
Soon, Madame Defarge』s hands ceased to strike, and felt at her
encircled waist. 「It is under my arm,」 said Miss Pross, in
smothered tones, 「you shall not draw it. I am stronger than you, I
bless Heaven for it. I』ll hold you till one or other of us faints or
dies!」
Madame Defarge』s hands were at her bosom. Miss Pross looked
up, saw what it was, struck at it, struck out a flash and a crash, and
stood alone—blinded with smoke.
All this was in a second. As the smoke cleared. leaving an awful
stillness, it passed out on the air, like the soul of the furious
woman whose body lay lifeless on the ground. In the first fright
and horror of her situation, Miss Pross passed the body as far from
it as she could, and ran down the stairs to call for fruitless help.
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Happily, she bethought herself of the consequences of what she
did, in time to check herself and go back. It was dreadful to go in
at the door again; but she did go in, and even went near it, to get
the bonnet and other things that she must wear. These she put on,
out on the staircase, first shutting and locking the door and taking
away the key. She then sat down on the stairs a few moments to
breathe and to cry, and then got up and hurried away.
By good fortune she had a veil on her bonnet, or she could
hardly have gone along the streets without being stopped. By good
fortune, too, she was naturally so peculiar in appearance as not to
show disfigurement like any other woman. She needed both
advantages, for the marks of gripping fingers were deep in her
face, and her hair was torn, and her dress (hastily composed with
unsteady hands) was clutched and dragged a hundred ways.
In crossing the bridge, she dropped the door key in the river.
Arriving at the cathedral some few minutes before her escort, and
waiting there, she thought, what if the key were already taken in a
net, and if it were identified, what if the door were opened and the
remains discovered, what if she were stopped at the gate, sent to
prison, and charged with murder! In the midst of these fluttering
thoughts, the escort appeared, took her in, and took her away.
「Is there any noise in the streets?」 she asked him.
「The usual noises,」 Mr. Cruncher replied; and looked surprised
by the question and by her aspect.
「I don』t hear you,」 said Miss Pross. 「What do you say?」
It was in vain for Mr. Cruncher to repeat what he said; Miss
Pross could not hear him. 「So I』ll nod my head,」 thought Mr.
Cruncher, amazed, 「at all events she』ll see that.」 And she did.
「Is there any noise in the streets now?」 asked Miss Pross again,
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presently.
Again Mr. Cruncher nodded his head.
「I don』t hear it.」
「Gone deaf in a hour?」 said Mr. Cruncher, ruminating, with his
mind much disturbed; 「wot』s come to her?」
「I feel,」 said Miss Pross, 「as if there had been a flash and a
crash, and that crash was the last thing I should ever hear in this
life.」
「Blest if she ain』t in a queer condition!」 said Mr. Cruncher,
more and more disturbed. 「Wot can she have been a takin』, to
keep her courage up? Hark! There』s the roll of them dreadful
carts! You can hear that, Miss?」
「I can hear,」 said Miss Pross, seeing that he spoke to her,
「nothing. O, my good man, there was first a great crash, and then
a great stillness, and that stillness seems to be fixed and
unchangeable, never to be broken any more as long as my life
lasts.」
「If she don』t hear the roll of those dreadful carts, now very nigh
their journey』s end,」 said Mr. Cruncher, glancing over his
shoulder, 「it』s my opinion that indeed she never will hear anything
else in this world.」
And indeed she never did.
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Chapter XLV
THE FOOTSTEPS DIE OUT FOR EVER
Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and
harsh. Six tumbrils carry the day』s wine to La Guillotine.
All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since
imagination could record itself, are fused in the one realisation,
Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of
soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a peppercorn,
which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than
those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of
shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself
into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious
license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same
fruit according to its kind.
Six tumbrils roll along the streets. Change these back again to
what they were, thou powerful enchanter, Time, and they shall be
seen to be the carriages of absolute monarchs, the equipages of
feudal nobles, the toilettes of flaring Jezebels, the churches that
are not my Father』s house but dens of thieves, the huts of millions
of starving peasants! No; the great magician who majestically
works out the appointed order of the Creator, never reverses his
transformations. 「If thou be changed into this shape by the will of
God,」 say the seers to the enchanted, in the wise Arabian stories,
「then remain so! But, if thou wear this form through mere passing
conjuration, then resume thy former aspect!」 Changeless and
hopeless, the tumbrils roll along.
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As the sombre wheels of the six carts go round, they seem to
plough up a long crooked furrow among the populace in the
streets. Ridges of faces are thrown to this side and to that, the
ploughs go steadily onward. So used are the regular inhabitants of
the houses to the spectacle, that in many windows there are no
people, and in some occupation of the hands is not so much as
suspended, while the eyes survey the faces in the tumbrils. Here
and there, the inmate has visitors to see the sight; then he points
his finger, with something of the complacency of a curator or
authorised exponent, to this cart and to this, and seems to tell who
sat here yesterday, and who there the day before.
Of the riders in the tumbrils, some observe these things, and all
things on their last roadside, with an impassive stare; others, with
a lingering interest in the ways of life and men. Some, seated with
drooping heads, are sunk in silent despair; again, there are some
so heedful of their looks that they cast upon the multitude such
glances as they have seen in theatres, and in pictures. Several
close their eyes, and think, or try to get their straying thoughts
together. Only one, and he a miserable creature, of a crazed
aspect, is so shattered and made drunk by horror, that he sings,
and tries to dance. Not one of the whole number appeals by look
or gesture, to the pity of the people.
There is a guard of sundry horsemen riding abreast of the
tumbrils, and faces are often turned up to some of them, and they
are asked some question. It would seem to be always the same
question, for it is always followed by a press of people towards the
third cart. The horsemen abreast of that cart, frequently point out
one man in it with their swords. The leading curiosity is, to know
which is he; he stands at the back of the tumbril with his head
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bent down, to converse with a mere girI who sits on the side of the
cart, and holds his hand. He has no curiosity or care for the scene
about him, and always speaks to the girl. Here and there in the
long street of St. Honore, cries are raised against him. If they move
him at all, it is only to a quiet smile, as he shakes his hair a little
more loosely about his face. He cannot easily touch his face, his
arms being bound.
On the steps of a church, awaiting the coming-up of the
tumbrils, stands the Spy and prison-sheep. He looks into the first
of them: not there. He looks into the second: not there. He already
asks himself, 「Has he sacrificed me?」 when his face clears, as he
looks into the third.
「Which is Evremonde?」 says a man behind him.
「That. At the back there.」
「With his hand in the girl』s?」
「Yes.」
The man cries, 「Down, Evremonde! To the Guillotine all
aristocrats! Down, Evremonde!」
「Hush, hush!」 the Spy entreats him, timidly.
「And why not, citizen?」
「He is going to pay the forfeit: it will be paid in five minutes
more. Let him be at peace.」
But the man continuing to exclaim, 「Down, Evremonde!」 the
face of Evremonde is for a moment turned towards him.
Evremonde then sees the Spy, and looks attentively at him, and
goes his way.
The clocks are on the stroke of three, and the furrow ploughed
among the populace is turning round, to come on into the place of
execution, and end. The ridges thrown to this side and to that, now
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crumble in and close behind the last plough as it passes on, for all
are following to the Guillotine. In front of it, seated in chairs, as in
a garden of public diversion, are a number of women, busily
knitting. On one of the foremost chairs, stands The Vengeance,
looking about for her friend.
「Therese!」 she cries, in her shrill tones. 「Who has seen her?
Therese Defarge!」
「She never missed before,」 says a knitting-woman of the
sisterhood.
「No; nor will she miss now,」 cries The Vengeance petulantly.
「Therese.」
「Louder,」 the woman recommends.
Ay! Louder, Vengeance, much louder, and still she will scarcely
hear thee. Louder yet, Vengeance, with a little oath or so added,
and yet it will hardly bring her. Send other women up and down to
seek her, lingering somewhere; and yet, although the messengers
have done dread deeds, it is questionable whether of their own
wills they will go far enough to find her!
「Bad Fortune!」 cries The Vengeance, stamping her foot in the
chair, 「and here are the tumbrils! And Evremonde will be
dispatched in a wink, and she not here! See her knitting in my
hand, and her empty chair ready for her. I cry with vexation and
disappointment!」
As The Vengeance descends from her elevation to do it, the
tumbrils begin to discharge their loads. The ministers of Sainte
Guillotine are robed and ready. Crash!—a head is held up, and the
knitting-women, who scarcely lifted their eyes to look at it a
moment ago when it could think and speak, count One.
The second tumbril empties and moves on; the third comes up.
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Crash!—And the knitting-women, never faltering or pausing in
their work, count Two.
The supposed Evremonde descends, and the seamstress is
lifted out next after him. He has not relinquished her patient hand
in getting out, but still holds it as he promised. He gently places
her with her back to the crashing engine that constantly whirrs up
and falls, and she looks into his face and thanks him.
「But for you, dear stranger, I should not be so composed, for I
am naturally a poor little thing, faint of heart; nor should I have
been able to raise my thoughts to Him who was put to death, that
we might have hope and comfort here today. I think you were sent
to me by Heaven.」
「Or you to me,」 says Sydney Carton. 「Keep your eyes upon me,
dear child, and mind no other object.」
「I mind nothing while I hold your hand. I shall mind nothing
when I let it go, if they are rapid.」
「They will be rapid. Fear not!」
The two stand in the fast-thinning throng of victims, but they
speak as if they were alone. Eye to eye, voice to voice, hand to
hand, heart to heart, these two children of the Universal Mother,
else so wide apart and differing, have come together on the dark
highway, to repair home together, and to rest in her bosom.
「Brave and generous friend, will you let me ask you one last
question? I am very ignorant, and it troubles me—just a little.」
「Tell me what it is.」
「I have a cousin, an only relative and an orphan, like myself,
whom I love very dearly. She is five years younger than I, and she
lives in a farmer』s house in the south country. Poverty parted us,
and she knows nothing of my fate—for I cannot write—and if I
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
A Tale of Two Cities
could, how should I tell her! It is better as it is.」
「Yes, yes, better as it is.」
「What I have been thinking as we came along, and what I am
still thinking now, as I look into your kind strong face which gives
me so much support, is this:—If the Republic really does good to
the poor, and they come to be less hungry, and in all ways to suffer
less, she may live a long time: she may even live to be old.」
「What then, my gentle sister?」
「Do you think」; the uncomplaining eyes in which there is so
much endurance, fill with tears, and the lips part a little more and
tremble: 「that it will seem long to me, while I wait for her in the
better land where I trust both you and I will be mercifully
sheltered?」
「It cannot be, my child; there is no Time there, and no trouble
there.」
「You comfort me so much! I am so ignorant. Am I to kiss you
now? Is the moment come?」
「Yes.」
She kisses his lips; he kisses hers; they solemnly bless each
other. The spare hand does not tremble as he releases it; nothing
worse than a sweet, bright constancy is in the patient face. She
goes next before him—is gone; the knitting-women count Twenty-
Two.
「I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and
whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die!」
The murmuring of many voices, the upturning of many faces,
the pressing on of many footsteps in the outskirts of the crowd, so
that it swells forward in a mass, like one great heave of water, all
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
A Tale of Two Cities
flashes away. Twenty-Three.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the
peacefullest man』s face ever beheld there. Many added that he
looked sublime and prophetic.
One of the most remarkable sufferers by the same axe—a
woman—had asked at the foot of the same scaffold, not long
before, to be allowed to write down the thoughts that were
inspiring her. If he had given any utterance to his, and they were
prophetic, they would have been these:
「I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Jurymen,
the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the
destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument,
before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and
a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to
be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long, long
years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of
which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for
itself and wearing out.
「I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful,
prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more.
I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see
her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to
all men in his healing office, and at peace; I see the good old man,
so long their friend, in ten years』 time enriching them with all he
has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.
「I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
A Tale of Two Cities
of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman,
weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her
husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly
bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred
in the other』s soul, than I was in the souls of both.
「I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my
name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once
was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made
illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it,
faded away. I see him, foremost of just judges and honoured men,
bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and
golden hair, to this place—then fair to look upon, with not a trace
of this day』s disfigurement—and I hear him tell the child my story,
with a tender and a faltering voice.
「It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is
a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.」
The End
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics